Making Do
by DenHollander
Summary: A strange alliance is formed in strange times. This is the story of a few men, working together to survive the apocolypse
1. An Atagonistic Ally?

** Making Do**

** Part One - The Base**

Chapter One – An Antagonistic Ally?

"Ach nein, Heavy! Vhat are you doing?" The screams of the German man could be herd far and wide, but was there even any one to hear it? The BLU medic looked around for any help, but saw no one but the creature that used to be his best friend.

The BLU heavy had been acting somewhat strange all day (beginning with that weird creature biting him earlier this morning, but now all of a sudden he had let out a roar and grabbed the medic. Lifting him up by both hands, and moving the struggling doctor closer to his mouth.

"HELP! NO! HEAVY! NO!" The medic looked at Heavy's face, as his eyes lacked pupils.

"Fascinating..."

Suddenly, the heavy let go of him. The medic fell to the ground, completely surprised by what had happened. The body of the heavy collapsed on top of him. The medic struggled to push the heavy off, and finally he crawled from underneath.

"Vhat happened to you, Heavy?" The medic noticed that his glasses were covered in blood. He cleaned them off using a part of his doctor's outfit. The medic quickly noticed that the heavy lacked the heady that usually rested upon his neck. "Verdammter Sniper!" the medic said, out of habit. These pesky snipers always had this habit of killing the heavy when they were about to charge an enemy position, leaving the medic to fend for himself. The medic saw no issues with fighting, but most of the time he'd lose to the better fighters like the RED Demoman and the RED Soldier.

Though this time, it was different. The heavy looked out of his mind, with the same kind of face he made just before he ate one of his precious sandviches. Was the heavy really going to eat him?

A large moan could be herd. "Vhat is it now?"

About ten of the monsters were closing in on him. The medic's yelling must have gotten their attention The medic realized that he was cornered. He reached for his blutsauger, but he must have dropped it somewhere in the confusion of heavy grabbing him. The only weapon he had was his trusty bone saw

"Who vants to die first?" The medic smiled menacingly, intent on learning more about these creatures after he murdered them. They looked humanoid, but their bodies were covered in blood. Many of them had grave injuries all over their bodies, and one even had his entire chest ripped open. The formation of the creature's insides were instantly recognized by the medic. These...creatures were once human. The medic didn't have enough thinking time as one of the creatures jumped forward. Another sniper shot could be herd...and a second one, and a third one. The medic checked himself for wounds, but found none. 3 of the creatures lay on the ground, dead.

In the distance he could hear a loud, familiar yell "GET OVER HERE YOU YOBBO!" The medic looked over to where it came from, and he saw someone waving his hand. The RED sniper was standing on top of one of this most favorite camping spots (as the others mockingly called it)

Now, the medic had seen many strange things in his days as a mercenary. A decapitating ghost, a flying magical eye and this near-unkillable Australian man with a very nice bone structure, but the RED sniper's actions baffled him

RED and BLU had been fighting a small-sized war for quite a while, and both the BLU medic and the RED sniper had killed each other many times. Through the magic of the engineer's Respawn system, they were brought back to life to fight another day after their deaths. The RED sniper was a professional that would always go for the kill if he could. But now, he had a clear shot, and didn't take it. In fact, one of his enemies was helping him.

Another shot, and another dead creature.

"DO YOU WANT TO GET KILLED, MEDICINE WOMAN?" The RED sniper yelled even louder. So loud that all zombies focused on him for a second, before looking back at the BLU medic.

"'Dammt. Now zere are more of zem!" Multiple creatures slowly strolled around the corner.

The medic realized that he could never take on all of them at the same time. Then, a plan quickly formed in his mind. He grabbed his medigun, relived to see blue sparkles circling around the front of the device. The medic gained a grin of pure evil

"I am fully charged!" With the flick of a switch, a blue aura of pure protection formed over his whole body. A great energy rush took hold of him, as his body started producing tons and tons of adrenaline.

The medic, temporarily rendered invincible by the "magic" of his own medigun, ran through horde of creatures. The many scratches and attempted bites didn't even faze him, as he continued to push zombies aside, hoping his Übercharge would at least give him enough time to get away.

The energy was starting to leave his body again, and the medic knew that his invincible time was running out. Finally, he pulled out his bone saw, ready to slay anything that came into his way.

The BLU medic had to cross one more open field until he could reach the RED sniper's camping spot. Normally he wouldn't even have thought about approaching a sniper's location over an open field, but today, things were different. The medic had not seen his fellow BLU's (outside of the Heavy) in hours, and so far he had no one else to count on to protect him from these monsters. The sniper's actions were helpful enough, so the Medic decided to just go for it. If the Sniper opposed him in any way, the medic would surely deal with him. Besides, the medic considered himself a man of honor (outside of his medical practices and scientific research, of course), and he mentally cursed himself for thinking of killing someone who had just helped him.

The medic stared around the corner. 8 creatures stood in between him, and the building that Sniper had entrenched himself in. The medic tried to wave at the sniper, hoping that he would see him.

A few rounds of gunfire confirmed that the Sniper had seen him, and was clearing the way for him The zombies were confused by the gunfire, and the German man that ran past them. When one of the creatures tried grabbing the medic he was answered by a fierce bone saw swing that decapitated him. The medic didn't bother to stop, as he reached the door of the Grey-walled building.

He banged on the door as it didn't open for him.

"I'm coming!" The sniper descended from his sniper position to unlock the steel door. The medic turned around, once again cornered by the creatures.

"Vont you ever give up?"

"Come in doc, now!" The sniper opened the door as little as was required and pulled the medic inside. The medic was breathing frantically in and out, as he let himself slide on the floor. Before the sniper rammed the door shut he quickly sprayed some SMG fire at the creatures.


	2. Dissection and Dinner

Chapter Two – A dissection and dinner

The medic looked around him. The place looked like one of those abandoned factories that they sometimes fought in. In the background stood multiple abandoned pieces of mechanical lines, and the smell of rot hung in the air (it wasn't as bad as the medic's fridge though).

There was one ladder leading up to a high-end office that the sniper had conveniently turned into a sniper spot.

The Sniper aimed his SMG at the medic. The two men stared each other in the eye. Then, slowly, the sniper lowered his gun.

"Vhy are you doing zis?"

"I'm a bushman, doc. I survive where others fail. And right now, as far as I see the situation, anyone who isn't one of those zombies is my ally. We can start killin' each other again after we get rid of those things. Agreed?"

the sniper held out his hand, ready to help the medic up.

"Agreed then." the medic took the sniper's hand, and rose to his feet again. "So, vhat's ze plan?"

"Plan? What plan?" the sniper flicked his aviators back onto the proper position.

The medic was silent for a while. Then, he grumbled

"So you have no idea how to fix zis?"

"Nope. Luckily I'm stacked to the brim with ammo." The sniper pointed at a large cache of ammo boxes , all orderly stacked into different sizes "I like to be prepared, you know?"

"Jawohl, I've seen zat from our own Sniper."

"Mm hm. He didn't make it, by the way."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw him, through my scope. He hadn't picked as good a spot as I did, as a bunch of zombies cornered him in his hiding spot and tore him apart. I at least put him out of the misery of being eaten alive." The sniper took off this hat and put it shortly on his stomach, as a sign of honor "You were a good bugger, but not good enough."

"Vhy are you mourning him? Won't he just return with ze Respawn?

"Respawn's down. I haven't seen him in an hour. C'mere, doc."

Reluctantly the BLU medic followed his new "ally" up the ladder. It was a mess up there, as it again was stacked with supplies. An orderly stack of soup cans, 23 different can openers all placed orderly on a table. Next to the table the Sniper had attached one of pyro's flamethrowers to a sink. Above it hung a small kettle. The wall was filled with different kinds of sniper rifles and SMG's. Amongst the stack of weapons stood a few weapons that didn't belong to him. Immediately the medic picked up an overdose. It was fully loaded, ready to fire. The sniper turned around, sternly staring at the medic. The medic put the overdose back onto the floor.

"Vhat?" He was starting to be a bit unnerved by the Sniper's stare.

"Can you hear it? Nothing! Bloody nothing! Now think, doc, when has it ever been silent before? Not with a soldier, a demo, or one of those frikking annoying scouts running around. It's like the zombies shut down everything, even Respawn."

"Don't be ridiculous! Respawn has been working for so long!"

"Let's see, where is he..." The sniper peered through his scope looking for something. "There!" He pointed at a dead body, lying on one of the roofs.

"That's YOUR soldier! Dead, killed'm meself. He's been lying there for over an hour. No respawn, nothing. The body never disappeared"

The Medic stared at the dead body for half a minute, but it was still there.

"Ze respawn is not working..."

"So you mean, that...Heavy is...,.Nein! Zat is impossible!"

"Condolences." Sniper returned his attention to his new found duty; killing as much of those freaks as he could. Luckily, his newest rifle was silenced, so the zombies couldn't determine where the kill shots were coming from.

"One body does not prove anyzing!"

"I've seen it happen, three times, one up close. Poor truckie, I liked him the most. See for yourself what happened to him. I buried him in the corner," Sniper pointed at the furthest corner of the building, to a bunch of trash. When the Medic examined the pile closer he could see one gloved hand sticking out. Instantly the medic recognized the engineer's orange glove.

"You have a specimen for me?"

"Not a specimen, but a victim, doc. Treat him with some dignity!" The sniper lashed out, grumbling at the Medic's scientific ways of treating people. As soon as you had a paper cut the medic would be all over you, examining your wound as if it was the holy grail. Finally the bugger would heal you when his curiosity faded away. Then again, the medic did save their lives on an hourly basis , so the sniper (as did everyone on this team) let it pass.

The BLU medic descended onto the ground floor. He approached the stack of junk on the other side of the room. Pushing it over, he uncovered the body of the RED engineer. It was in a terrible state. His jaw was completely gone, and his skin had darkened and torn. His stomach was full of bullet holes. The medic immediately recognized where the bullets came from: the sniper's SMG.

The medic pulled the engineer's body onto an empty workbench. Using his faithful bone saw he began the autopsy. As usual his morbid curiosity took over and made him lose track of time.

"Zis wil be interesting..."

* * *

The Sniper's stomach growled. It was getting late, and he felt that it was time to shut down for the night. While the zombies were dangerous, they were useless in getting in. As long as he'd close up everything and check it thrice they would not be getting in here. The Sniper closed the door to his sniping spot, locked it, and shoved the table in front of it. He checked the front door and the small back end door. Both were inaccessible from the outside. Satisfied, the Sniper began cooking dinner. After a bit of searching The Sniper got out a soup pan he'd bought from the soldier a while a go.

The Sniper opened up one of his soup cans by violently shoving his kukiri into it and ripping the top off. He walked over to his improvised cooking spot where he had strapped one of the pryo's flamethrowers to the far end of the table. After a bit of messing around with the valves on the far end of the backburner he managed to create a steady flame that wouldn't instantly burn the soup.

Sniper's mind drifted off just to how much he feared, and detested the pryo. Like the others on his team the Pyro was something that you should avoid, even when it's on your side. The sniper always appreciated efficiency and subtlety, but the pryo lacked both completely. Often he felt as if he was the only true professional in his team.

He hung the pot above the flame, and idly stared at the flame hitting the underside of the pot, dispersing into multiple smaller flames. "Dieing" by the hand of a Pyro was by far the worst fate you could experience in this slaughterhouse. The feeling of being cooked, and all your insides boiling was by far the worst way to go. As much as Sniper hated dieing, he preferred any death above being burnt alive. A sniper shot to the head or a backstab killed you so quickly that you lived long enough to feel pain

A sound knocked the Sniper out of his morbid thoughts. Instinctively he reached for his SMG and turned around.

The medic was visibly surprised by the gun pointing at his face, but the feeling faded quickly.

"Put zat gun down, please." he said, rather annoyed. After doing his dissection he realized the importance of team work...with his enemy. "I have not seen our spy in a vhile."

"That's what is bothering me." The sniper put the gun away, but within reaching distance. He wanted to be ready, for everything, and anything.

" I am done with my exzamination, and have bad news. Vhatever happened to ze Engineer is **UNFIXABLE!"**

"Figured that out years ago, doc. What else is new?" The Sniper peered at the bubbling soup

"I have no idea vhat we are dealing with. I suspect a virus, but no virus works like zis. It changed his body into a mindless wreck. You killed him with your MP40, ja?"

"MP40? You mean my SMG?"

"Vhatever, za'ts not important. His stomach was riddled with gun-holes. One of the bullets I recovered is from zat type of gun." The Medic picked up a bloody bullet and showed it to the Sniper. "Vhat happened?

" I saw him walking around defending himself from the zombies, and called him inside. He was getting ill, and while I tried to take care of him, but I ain't exactly the person on the team with medical experience. When he tried to bite me like the other freaks outside I sprayed his body full of led. He was still wakin', doc, and kept reaching for me until I blew half of his face off."

"So ze infected get ill, and zen lose their mind. He had a large bit on his leg, but all other vounds vere inflicted by guns. His stomach showed no sign of an infection, so ze legvound has to be vhere ze infection started. Ze bitemarks in ze flesh were from a human, or vhoever uzed to be one."

"Tell me something I don't already know, doc."

The medic grumbled "Vhy don't you do ze exzamination next time? I'll even lend you my saw."

The sniper wanted to reply, but alarm clock he had set earlier started beeping. He pulled the pan from the backburner and put the pan on the table. Using a filthy spoon he stirred the dark green soup. He tasted it and gave the medic a thumbs up. 'Here's your dinner, doc!"

The medic leaned closer, taking in the soup. It wasn't very good, but something in that smell reminded him of home. The sniper handed the medic another filthy spoon.


	3. Preparation and Promises

(author's note, I will be reworking the start of this chapter later, but for now I just want to keep my positive flow of creativity flowing. Don't stop me now, because I might not get back on the creativity train for a while! Keep the reviews up, I want to know how you feel)

Chapter 3 – Preparations and Promises

The Medic had seen better nights of sleep, but considering that he had slept on a makeshift bed of clothing it wasn't all that bad. The Sniper was back at his favourite spot and back to his job of clearing out the surroundings. The Medic suspected that he had been awake for a few hours.

"Like zey say in Frankfürt, "Guten mörgen." He wiped some dirt from his glasses, inspecting them slowly.

"I've been waiting for you, doc."

"Vhy so dramatic?" The Medic stared uneasy.

"Because we need to go out. This morning I established contact with "your" Engie" The Sniper pointed at a radio (I can't think of the word, sorry) nearby. He's holding out easily but he can't get leave his sentry gun."

" What else is new?"

"He's running out of food." The Sniper stared at the stack of soup cans. "We've got to get him."

"Vhile it's great to hear that "our" engineer is alive, can't he just get here on his own?"

"Really, doc? You and I both know that Truckie minus sentry is dead meat in most battles. He's made for building, not for fighting. He relies on his team to protect him, while he does his job. We're his team, doc. And we're going to get him. Get whatever you need. We're leaving in ten." The Sniper gave the Medic an ice cold stare.

The Medic sighed, realizing that the Sniper was sticking to his idea of going out. "Very well zen. Vhere is he?"

"A few blocks away, out of my sniping reach. Which means..."

"That we vill encounter zem."

"Yeah. Get your über ready." The Sniper started collecting SMG ammo, and putting it in his backpack. As usual before he went into combat he went through his check-list twice. He cleaned out his Sniper rifle with just as much as precision as was humanly possible, and orderly put two clips of SMG bullets in his back pockets. Just to be sure he also reached for one of the pistols he had "borrowed" from the scout, fully loaded.

The Medic observed one of his own weapons from the Sniper's collection. The blutsauger, as he nicknamed it. It drained the blood of anything struck by it and gave it to the Medic... A sudden realization made him drop the gun. If the Medic fired this at a zombie he could get infected himself. And, based off Sniper's story the creatures could only be killed by weapons that deliver more of a punch then his syringe gun. Uneasy, he reached for a shotgun, like the one Heavy sometimes used (if he wasn't using his sandvich, that is). Then again, he would not be able to hold the shotgun and his medigun at the same time.

He looked at all the guns lined up. To his surprise even one of Heavy's miniguns was there, the Tomislav. Outside of that he had every weapon (but the heaviest of Heavy's miniguns) twice. Eventually the Medic settled on one of the Spy's revolvers, the one he knew had the biggest impact. A snub-nosed revolver with a pearl grip, half covered in blood. Next to it hung a second one, along with a few small boxes of ammo for it. The Medic held it in his hand, guessing the weight of the gun. Eventually he settled on holstering the two pistols like the kind of cowboys in cheesy western movies. After placing as much ammo as he could in his satchel he was ready to go out. As a final touch he put his medigun on his back and his bonesaw within reach.

"I am ready." He struck a pose as he started overhealing the Sniper.

"Good. Doc, one more thing." The Sniper reached for a leather strap with flat magnets on one side. "Put this on and you can carry a shotgun on your back." On his back he had attached another Sniper rifle and some ammo.

The Medic once again stared at the wall of weapons. "Perhaps zat one vill...nein..."

"Get on with it!" The Sniper shouted out.

"Ja, ja." The Medic reached for the Heavy's family business (an odd name for a shotgun, but then again, everyone in the team had named their weapons) and strapped it on his back. For a moment he felt very sad as the realization of Heavy's death suddenly sunk in. He had lost his biggest friend...forever. Heavy was never coming back. The big, bald, friendly Russian got infected by that bite...his insides slowly rotting.

"I could have prevented this...but I didn't know."

"Know what? " The Sniper checked his weapons for the fifth time in two minutes.

"Nozing. It's nozing." The Medic stared at the Sniper. "Promise me."

"Promise me zat if I...get infected, zat you kill me. On ze spot. I do not vant to go through vhat your heard-hatted friend went through."

"Promised." The Sniper held out his hand "As long as you do the same to me."

"Gut." The Medic shook the Sniper's hand. "Now, let us get ze Engineer."

"God save the queen!" The Sniper kicked open the door, ready to face hell itself.


	4. Treason and Teamwork

Sniper had cleared the road ahead that morning. The field that the medic had crossed yesterday was littered with dead bodies.

"Mein gott..." The medic was no stranger to (love, you know the...never mind, sorry.) dead and mutilated bodies, but the sheer amount of bodies was what surprised him. All of the bodies lacked heads (a testimony to Sniper's skill) and had leaked a eerie dark fluid over the ground.

The dark blood slowly dripped into a drainpipe nearby. It was the only sound they heard besides their own breathing.

"Are you getting weak-skinned, doc? C'mon ,we need to move!" The sniper started to pull the medic along to get the stunned German along.

"My skin is in excellent condizion, zank you." The Medic pulled himself loose from Sniper's grip

"I vas just...overcome by curiosity."

"Leave the science for later, doc. First we're going to get Truckie." The Sniper moved forward, leaping over the bodies as if they were mere stepping stones. The medic cautiously followed him, intent on not tumbling over all the bodies and blood on the floor. For a moment the Sniper had disappeared around a corner, only to come running back. He pulled out his sniper rifle and leaned against a wall

"Doc, we've got company."

"Begriffen." The medic nodded, putting away one of his revolvers to pull out his bone saw "I am ready. Do you need a charge?"

"No, not yet. They're with 10 or something...nothing we can't handle if we do it right. At the end of this corridor is a platform, we move up there, and assess the situation. If there's to many, we return here and figure out a new way to get to Truckie."

"Ja."

The medic and sniper shared a silent nod. The sniper used his left hand to count down to one "Aim for the head, and shoot to kill."

As soon as the countdown had ended the Sniper and Medic ran around the corner. Up ahead was a long corridor with multiple zombies standing around. A few noticed the pair and started to groan as they slowly made their way to them. The Sniper stood still, breathed in and out, and started firing upon the zombies. The gunshot echoed around, alerting everything around them to their presence.

The Sniper casually walked forward while eliminating zombies one-by one. They were about halfway when the Medic herd a moan behind them. 2 zombies had appeared behind them, and ran at them. There was no time to warn the Sniper, so the medic leaped forward to protect him. He shot one of the zombies with the revolver in this left arm, while his right arm reached for his bone saw

One of the zombies fell down, but the other was getting very close. With a fierce thrust the medic jammed his bone saw in between the creature's ribs. Something that would have killed most men (outside of perhaps, the Heavy) did little to stop the creature from trying to bite the Medic. He used the bone saw to hold the zombie back, while he unloaded the last 3 shots in his gun in the zombie's face. With a last struggle it stopped moving.

The medic wanted to dissect the creature now stuck on his blade, but he realized that that would have to wait. With a fierce kick he separated his saw from the creature's chest.

"Und zat is vhat you get vhen you threaten me!" The medic smiled, before checking up on the Sniper.

"This is even easier then killing a Heavy!"

The medic felt a strong urge to slap him, but restrained himself. If they were not in the situation they were now he would have delivered the Sniper a fate worse then death.

The Sniper turned around. "No offense, doc."

"None taken." The Medic lied. Their survival was more important then the hatred the Medic felt for the Sniper right now.

"C'mon." The Sniper moved up the platform and climbed up some storage containers that stood nearby. He used his Sniper rifle to look around and take in his surroundings. It was too bad that they did not have a map of this place, so they had to make do.

He reached for the radio in his pocket. "Sniper to Engie, are you there?" A macabre silence followed "This is Sniper, come in Engie. Engie?"

After another moment of silence he heard a moan. "Oh bloody hell."

The Sniper signaled at the Medic "I think Engie's dead."

"Vhat?"

"Hello? Anyone there?" A warm and familiar voice sounded from the radio's speakers. The Sniper reached for his radio again.

"Truckie, is that you?"

"Good morning pard'ner. Apologies for the late reply, but you just woke me up. This is Engie, speaking."

"Ok. We're out in the field, and we're coming to get you. Now, where were you again? We want to get you and be back "home" as soon as we can."

"I'm all set up in one of the higher blue buildings."

"High blue buildings? There's ton of them! We're not going to search all day for you just because you can't be more specific."

The sound on the other end suddenly went dead. "Truckie? Hello? Truckie, c'mon."

"All right, you want me to be specific? Watch the skies."

The medic could softly in the distance hear a sentry gun firing. Suddenly, a set of rockets flew through the sky along with a ton of bullets flying over them. From his elevated position the Sniper could easily spot from what building the barrage was coming from.

"Ok, Truckie, we got you. What floor are you on?"

"The 7th."

"Odd place to set up your stuff."

"That's exactly why it's brilliant. Now, the sound I produced will surely make all these mother-hubbards heading my way. I can hold out just fine, but I ain't going anywhere."

"Understood. We'll work out the best route and be there in no time. Pack your stuff. Sniper out."

* * *

They were progressing slowly, yet steadily. The Sniper would assess the situation, command the medic, and get them to the end of the next area after sneaking through as much as they could. The Medic still resented the Sniper, but in battle they worked together as if they had been on the same team all along. Generally it came down to the Sniper eliminating all movement while the Medic guarded their back and popping an Über once in a while.

"Doc, we're getting close." The Sniper peeked around the next corner. "Correction, we have a problem."

"at least 50 of them. We're almost to Engie's building, but we gotta get past them first."

The medic leaned to the side to get a good look at the situation. It was an open field with a few buildings to the right and left of it. At the end they could see the building that Sniper claimed Engie should be in. The place was filled with zombies that were either idly standing around or moaning.  
The medic estimated that they would not make it all they way through using one übercharge, and he did not want to end up surrounded by zombies without an Über ready to pop.

"Ve can't make it with one Über, ve have to find anozzer vay."

"Got it." It didn't take long for the sniper to come up with a new plan. "We move through the building on the right. If we're silent, we could get past them without being bitten. Put your gun away, doc." The sniper put his rifle on his back and reached for his kukiri. As silent as possible he walked over to a door nearby. He put his hand on the handle, giving the medic a silent nod.

The hallway inside was short and cramped. On the left and right were entrances to a kitchen and living room. Both rooms had large lifeless puppets inside, positioned as if they were a family.

As the Sniper and Medic ventured deeper into the house they saw not a living soul. They didn't expect to see anyone alive, but the lack of zombies was surprising as well.

"Vhat is zis place?" The medic examined one of the puppets.

"You never go inside any of the side-buildings, doc? This is our cover. To the world outside we are supposed to be a group of happy farmers. Whoever our bosses are, they are stupid if they think that anybody buys this idea." Sniper kicked over one of the puppets and left the room.

The sniper and medic had moved to the highest floor of the building. There was a balcony on which he quietly pulled out his rifle. The wind blowed, the zombies moaned and it looked like they were stuck.

"Verdammt! Verdammt, verdammt! Vhere do we go now?"

The Sniper tugged him by his arm, giving him a glare. Behind them was a small ladder that led up to the roof of the building.

"Ah, jes...I've missed zat. Like you say, Comon!" The Medic was the first up the ladder, hoping the Sniper would stop glaring.

"It's over zhere, ja?" The Medic pointed to a tall building nearby, built in the same exact monotone style of every building they had seen.

"Yep." The Sniper increased his pace to make sure he passed the medic. "And now we're only half way. Keep up the pace, doc!"

"Ja ja..." The medic stopped for a second to drink some water out of a flask he had brought with him.

Suddenly, part of the roof under Sniper's feet collapsed, knocking him off his balance and sending him off the side of the building.

"SNIPER!" The Medic sprinted ahead but stopped on the edge of collapsed roof. He carefully leaned forward, to see the Sniper hanging on to one of the drain pipes.

"DOC! GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME UP!" The Sniper's cry alarmed all the zombies below, whom started to stare up at the bungling Australian.

The medic wanted to move but his body didn't budge. There he hung. The man that had killed him and heavy so many times

"C'MON DOC, I HAVENT GOT ALL BLOODY DAY!" The Sniper looked down. The fall alone would probably kill him, but if he survived...his fate would be even worse. He tried to pull himself up, but the drainpipe started to creak the more he moved.

The man that had been just as big a pest as the RED spy, now asked him to save his life. A strange anger overtook him, the feeling of having an übercharge ruined by one cowardly Australian. This coward should deserve to experience the worst fate possible. And yet...now he was his ally. His teammate. But if he reached out to him the roof might even collapse further...and one death is better then two.

The drainpipe started to creak constantly and lose it's form.

"DOC! I SAVED YOU DAMMIT! DON'T YOU GO BETRAY ON ME NOW!" There only movement the Medic made was a smile.

"YOU WORTHLESS SHIT! I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU WHEN I HAD THE BLOODY CHANCE"

It was clear that the drainpipe was about to collapse. The Sniper would die, either by the fall or by being eaten by zombies. He was never a very religious man, but now he stared up at the sky, silently praying a God above him would have mercy on him

"DOC!" The creaking was starting to be louder then his yelling "GO TO HELL YOU GERMAN BASTARD! GO TO HELL AND DIE IN A DITCH!"

With those last words the drainpipe collapsed, and the Sniper plunged to his death

(No, this is not a cliffhanger. It's a drainpipe-hanger. Badum-tsssh!)


	5. Sentries N' Stress

(Author's note, I would like to state that I'm sorry for the delay...school and such isn't going to great, so I'm focusing on that. Updates will be slower then before. Anyhow, the story continues, and we start to see a bit of what an apocalypse can do to a man...)

A few seconds before...

There was no way that the Medic could save the Sniper and survive himself. Or was there? A plan formed in the Medic's mind. He reached for his backpack, smiling.

"GO TO HELL YOU GERMAN BASTARD!" The medic almost wanted to stop his plan but he carried on. They had to survive, together!

"GO TO HELL-" The Medic ignored it, and stood ready "AND DIE IN A DITCH!"

As the structure collapsed the Medic leaped forward, after the Sniper. He pulled out his medigun, and Übered the Sniper mere moments before they hit the ground. The powerful blue glow surrounded the Sniper and protected him from the fall damage.

The Sniper stared at his own hands, oblivious to the zombies around him. "What..." He said, in confusion. His mind couldn't grasp what just happened. Did he survive? Was he in heaven?

The medic had already wasted 3 seconds of their precious 8-second übercharge. He assumed that the Sniper was suffering from some kind of shock. He reached for the Sniper and pulled him away from the zombies into a door nearby. The Medic pushed the Sniper inside, before closing the door behind him.

The Sniper breathed in and out heavily. "Bloody, god damn, HELL!" He looked up at the Medic that was now keeping the door closed by putting his body against it.

"You vill be fine, get over it."

"Thanks...Doc...I take everything back." Slowly the Australian man got up.

"Zank me latar, hilf me now!" Multiple zombies were starting to bonk against the window. Slowly cracks started to appear.

"If I move from zis door zey vill come in. Und I cannot stay much longer."

"All right, doc, here's the plan. You run past me, up the stairs. I cover our back. Like a team." The Sniper aimed his Sniper rifle at the window next to the door and shot two zombies through the head.

A small moment later two new zombies were banging on the window. The cracks grew, and the window started to budge

"NOW!" The Medic ran towards the Sniper, ducking halfway. As soon as the medic abandoned the door it was pushed open by the zombies. The Sniper launched an accurate storm of gunfire in their direction. The window broke, and zombies started streaming into the room.

"WAIT ON THE ROOF!" The Sniper stood his ground as the medic moved past him up the stairs. The zombies never stopped coming, and at the very last moment the sniper decided to retreat to a higher level, with the undead chasing after him.

The first floor had only two rooms, a larger bedroom, and a study room. The Sniper knew that the zombies were relentless and had the numbers to overwhelm them. He entered the study room, hoisted a wooden chair, and threw down the stairs. He hoped that he at least had done some damage, or kept the zombies back for just a bit longer.

Sniper looked at the underside of the desk 'Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" He ran over to the far end of the desk and started pushing. The desk slowly moved, but not far enough. The Sniper positioned the side of the desk to be facing the stairway, and give it all he could. The desk came crashing down the stairs, knocking over multiple zombies. However, it didn't block the path up, as the Sniper would have wanted it to. "Dammit!"

He ran up the last set of stairs that led to the roof. "Doc, I can't hold em off for long! We've got to get on the roof again."

"Jawohl!" The medic pointed at a ladder, exactly the same like the last one. Reluctantly both of them got onto the roof again.

"Move slowly. If it cracks, we jump back." Step by step they crossed the roof to the last ladder down. They had to make the nervous choice of moving faster and risk falling, or falling behind and face the zombies.

"Now, when we get to Truckie, you talk to him first. I don't want to get this far and get shot by a paranoid Texan."

"Vhat do you mean? Did you never tell him zat you were on RED?"

"Of course not, doc! The only way I could get him to trust me is to act as if I were on BLU. If I even told him I was on RED he would have broken the connection after calling me "Eh Bloodeh SPAH!" The Sniper did a mocking rendition of the Engineer's southern accent that sounded like one of Spy's many mocking accents.

"Und you vant me to convince him zat ve are vorking together?"

"If he's behind a radio he can stop us finding and talking to him. If we're in his face, he can't,

And besides, I didn't go out here just for shits and giggles! That hard-hatted Texan is going with us weather he likes it or not! The Sniper realized that he was getting quite worked-up about this, and decided to take a deep sigh.

He decided to channel his anger into subdued sarcasm"Wonderful, now we go down again. I wonder what's going to happen next? More zombies?"

"I zink so, yes." The medic nodded. "Ve vill be facing a lot more of zem before ze day is over."

"I can't wait. Woohoo."

* * *

Now, the Medic and Sniper faced their worst enemy: more stairs! Sniper was suddenly reminded of some old game called "Snakes and Ladders." Only then the game had no snakes, and it was all about climbing stairs.

"All right, the 7th floor. Truckie should be up here somewhere." The Sniper could softly hear the distinct sound of an active mini sentry. "You go first. Get him to trust you and lure him away from his sentry, where we can freely talk. Or just get him to shut down his sentry. Either way will be fine."

The Medic sighed. Knowing the engineer, both were going to be difficult. "Hello! Engineer! Are you zhere!" The whole building had been painted blue on the inside and on the outside.

"Anybody there? Sniper, is that you?" The voice of the Engineer sounded much more stressed then usual. "Show yourself!"

"I am here, Engineer!" The medic walked over to the sound of the mini-sentry. Behind it stood it's owner, with a shotgun drawn and a mean look on his face

"Hello medic. Where's sniper?"

"He is over here, could you come out here. We need to talk to you."

"Of course!" The engineer's voice sounded just a tad too happy, but the Medic attributed that to an end to Engie's loneliness

The medic looked to the right, nodding at the Sniper to come over.

As the engineer reached the medic the smile turned into a mean look. The Texan leaped foreward and pushed over the Medic, and then launched a shotgun blast at the right. The Sniper had enough time to jump behind cover and avoid the gunfire.

"So, spah. You need your Snipes to help you kill me? Afraid your lil' french face can't deal with me any more? You tried to trap me, but you two are the ones in the trap. The Engineer leaned forward , looking the Medic right in the eye. "You will lean to fear me, boy, for I am the."

The Medic had had enough. The engineer was obviously suffering from sleep starvation which would most likely have yanked up his paranoia far beyond his usual levels.

"You will regret the day you crossed paths with me." The engineer put his shotgun up to Medic's head.

"Any last words, Frenchie?"

"Nein." With one swift yet powerful backhand slap the Medic had knocked the engineer off balance.

"What the-" The engineer expected the Medic to shift into his real form of the spy, but nothing happened.

"I am ze Medic."

"What is this trickery!" The engineer noticed that he had dropped his shotgun, but as he wanted to reach for it the medic kicked it away. The gun skid across the floor a bit until it came to a halt on the edge of the hallway

"You can come out now, Sniper"

"Are you bloody sure of that?" The Sniper peeked out of the room he was hiding in/

"Yes. Engineer, do not attack him, ve have somezing important to say."

"Truckie, I came out to get you, and not to get shot by you!"

"You're a bloody SPAH!" The Medic slapped the engineer again.

"Nein, verdammt, now, listen!" The Medic grabbed the Engineer by his shoulder "Respawn is down everyone else is DEAD and zhere are zombies everyvhere! Vhe, zat is, Sniper and I, are vorking together to survive. You either join us or die alone!"

"Couldn't have said it better meself. Truckie, I know, that we're on opposite teams. But right now, everyone who isn't a zombie is on the same side! Get your stuff, we're going back to my base.

The engineer was quiet for a while. The Sniper and Medic wanted to get out of here, but they didn't want him to freak out as well.

"So you two are working together?" The engineer looked up at the two.

"Yes. I saved his life, and he saved mine. Now, are you going with us?"

'I haven't seen anyone else then you in a while. 'Guess it's better to be with a team, even if they used to be your enemies. "

"Now zat, is vhat we vhant to hear. How fast can ve move?"

"Gimme a minute, metaphorically speakin'." The engineer idly turned around, starting to gather his stuff.

Subdued, the Sniper whispered to the Medic 'What the heck got into him? I know he's paranoid of spies, but this is... too much"

"A combination of loneliness, stress und a lack sleep. Ve need our sleep almost as much as ve need our food. He has been reading words on dispenser screens for far too long. He loves it so much he even claims it to be the future of reading!"

"Can't he just read a damn book?"

"I have been suggesting zat to him, but nein, his screen is more important then his eyes. Zen again, his performance has not been affected...so far."

"I can hear you two talkin', doc." The Engie popped out his head "And I am dissapoint."

"ted" The Sniper blurted out after a while. "He's not even finishing his sentences."

"Ve came in time...imagine how he vould have been a month later."

The Sniper quickly pushed the idea of a severely unhinged Engie out of his mind. "I thought everyone would slowly go nuts in this eternal cycle of death, but, I never would have figured it would be loneliness that did Engie in."

"He is not a bushmen like you. Neither am I. Ve humans, ve need each other."

"All set up...I mean, set down." The Engie was carrying two large toolboxes on his shoulders. But it was obvious to both the Sniper and the Medic that he would be dropping them soon

"Do you really need those?"

"Eeyup." He stumbled a bit but managed to retain his balance

"Engie, the undead are everywhere. We can't be afford to be slowed down like that."

"Who are you calling slow, you scoping skunk? Who knows about machines, you or me?"

"Ach, fine! Let me carry one of zem then!" The Medic grabbed one of the tool boxes , almost dropping one when finding out how heavy they were. Their trip home was not going to be fast, and the day was almost over.

"Here we go again. Stay close, both of ya."


	6. Argument with the Assasin

(Author's note:

Sorry I'm late...had a complete breakdown but I'm back. I just don't hope I jumped the shark here, but here it is. I'm not very happy with it, but I felt like I had to post something, yknow, to let you know that I'm working on it. Also, a new character will soon be introduced...and it's not an OC.)

" Around the next corner is... a ton of zombies." The Sniper discussed his plan "So we need to avoid them by moving around them."

"Sniper, that's damn 6th time you said that. Dontcha think we caught on to it now?" The engineer slowly reloaded his shotgun. If he tried to rush it his hands would shake and drop the bullet. The medic examined the Engineer. The further they progressed, the worse the shaking became. It looked like the Engineer was going to break down soon. They had to stop, and rest for the night.

"If you think ya got anything better then that, please let me know?"

"Enough of zis! You two have been bickering like little kinder for ze vhole vay! Can't you two be silent for ZWEI VERDAMMTER SECONDEN!" The Medic waved his arms around in anger.

"Now, the three of us are stressed, tired, and the night has just begun. As your doctor I prescribe a varm bed and a good night of sleeping. Ve need our rest. Now, at ze next house we set up for ze night."

"No way, doc! We are about an hour away from getting "home". The Sniper pointed at his hand drawn map, pointing out a line between where they were and where their destination was

"Do you vant to get KILLED" The Medic descended into an angry yell halfway through. "FOR ZIS HOUR!"

"Medic, you're overreacting." The Engie laid his gloved hand on the Medic's shoulder. The Medic could feel the hand softly shaking

"Vho is ze doctor here, you or me?" The Medic pushed the hand away, pointing at one of the buildings ahead of them "Zat place over zere looks nice."

Up ahead was another set of flats and apartment buildings, both red and blue. On the corner of the street stood a strangely luxurious building, oddly out of place in the rather cheap-looking buildings that surrounded it.

"Doc, what's German for no?" The Sniper placed his aviators back on his nose, annoyed by how often he needed to do that. Then again, he was blind without 'em, so it wasn't like there were much options open for him. The Engie once said that he could try and fix his eyes with a laser, but that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever herd. How can a laser correct eyes? The Engineer was brilliant, but completely nuts at the same time.

"Do I need to rip out your spinal cord and place it back ze wrong side up? Let us move, and go to bed."

The Engineer stretched himself out. 'Now that I'm thinking' about it, it does seems about right."

"Fine." The Sniper sighed. He couldn't argue with the both of them right now. Even though the idea seemed incredibly stupid to him. He wanted to protest it to the very end...yet chose not to. The team was more important then his own opinion.

* * *

"All right. First we check if xis place is zombie free. Zen ze Engineer builds his sentry below one of ze stairways chile ze Sniper and I find a place to safely sleep. Ve block all entrances properly, and zen we can sleep. Any problem?"

The Sniper suddenly remembered the German word for no . "Nayn" he said, grinning.

"Almost OK, my freund.` The Medic smiled.` At least you are better in battle zen you are in German. Let us meet back here in half an hour."

"All righty then! Sentry goin' up!" The Engineer walked to one of the two staircases and deployed his sentry by opening one of his toolboxes that unfolded into a level 3 sentry. Meanwhile, the Sniper and Medic boarded all entrances with makeshift barricades. They spent more time moving around furniture then your average moving crew. Halfway through the Engineer joined them after the most rigorous check up on his sentry he had ever performed.

No entrance was left unchecked, all doors were shut tight and the entrance to the first floor was barricaded. On top of that there was a level 3 sentry that had a view on all entrances, and it would wake up it´s owner if anything snuck in. Only one task remained, dividing the beds.

There were only two beds, with a capacity for 3 persons. The Medic and Sniper decided to share the bed, while the Engineer had already fallen asleep on top of the small one. It had been so fast that the Medic even checked up on him.

`His pulse is low, and his muscles are relaxing. He is deeply asleep.` The Medic took one last look at the sleeping Texan before softly closing the door behind him `Gute Nacht, mein Freund.`

The Medic walked back to his own bedroom. It was empty except for an old lamp and a hardwood bed with bland white covers. The muted colors of the bed made the flashy orange walls look completely out of place. Then again, nothing seemed to make sense in these fake houses. The Medic could not understand why anyone would pay for this, and then not use it. The spiderwebs that hung everywhere made it seem as if they had been the first persons here since it was finished.

Surprisingly, the Sniper wasn´t there. The Medic checked, but the path downstairs was still blocked.

The second floor existed of nothing more then a balcony. The Sniper sat on a plastic chair, looking at the sky.

"Sniper, verdammt. Go to sleep, vill you!" The Medic tapped him on his shoulder. "Do I need to tell you about ze conzequences again?"

"You're not my mother, Doc."

"Of course not. Firstly, I am male, and secondly our bodies are genetically speaking, wildly different. Zere is not even ze smallest possability zat you und I are carrying ze same family name.

"Don't you have anyone else to preach to?"

"Nein. Zere is no one here but you, und me. Und ve, are in ze same team. I care for you as much as I did for my original team."

"You only cared so far as your Medical experiments would take you. We were nothing but lab rats, for you to experiment with."

"Zink about how many times I have saved your life. Or rather, the RED Medic. Und yes, zese were experiments, but zey improved your capacity in battle. You might not have used ze übercharge, but I assure you, ze Heavy, Pyro, soldier, and demo vere zankful zat I replaced zere hearts. Anyzing zat harms your performance has been gone shortly after installing it."

"You were just experimenting with our own bodies for your own pleasure! I know you, doc, and I only see you smiling every time you cut open a body!" The Sniper had stood up, and pointed at the Medic. "You don't care for the money, you just want more specimens to test on!"

The Medic raised his voice" I am a man of honour. I save ze lives of our team every time ve go out in battle! I am not experimenting,I am improving you for ze mindless slaughter."

"You really don't get it, do you? There's no further point in arguing with you." The Sniper walked past the Medic, ignoring him completely. "I'm going to bed. Be happy."


	7. Doubts and the Deep

(Author's note: writing chapter six was...different. It was written in different bursts of short writing, whenever I remembered and dared to work on it. I hope to restore my normal writing process in this chapter. I planned on introducing the new character in this chapter, but decided against it for now. Perhaps he's shelved...perhaps not. I don't plan far ahead when writing Now, on to the chapter!)

(Author's second note; I've been looking back at what made the previous set of chapters so good, and I realize that the chapter before this one lacked real combat. I personally think I'm best at writing combat scenes and rather mediocre at describing things. Anyhow, the story continues, and as they say, don't split the partey)

Sniper had planned out the route they would be taking, and meticulously explained it to the Engineer and the Medic. The Sniper had tried to convince the engineer to leave one of his heavy toolboxes behind In contrast to yesterday all three were completely silent. The Engineer was deep in thoughts over his current situation and if he really could trust the RED Sniper.

\

He knew that the BLU Sniper was one of the most trustworthy teammates he had (even if he kept himself as far away from the action as was possible), not to mention, the most down to earth member of BLU. The Engineer knew how close his RED counterpart was to his personality and skills, and that that counted for the rest of the RED team as well. From that notion he assumed that he would be able to trust the Sniper. But how can you trust someone that has killed you time after time? Suddenly an old Texan saying popped up in his head. " If you are attacked by a bear, even communists are allowed to help ya"." Indeed, the creatures that were threatening them were enough of a threat to enable teamwork with his enemies. They were the only people he talked to in days, and he'd rather work with his enemies then be alone.

The Engineer idly turned around the corner, completely oblivious to the fact that the Sniper and Medic had stopped walking a while ago. The Engineer was knocked out of his thoughts by what was in front of him.

A giant truck had crashed into one of the outer perimeter fences, had toppled over. Oil was leaking from the side of the vehicle. But that wasn't the worst thing. The Engineer couldn't even count how many of the creatures were standing in front of him. Multiple of them turned to face him. One of them started to moan, drawing the horde's attention to the engineer.

"I'll be damned." The Engineer dropped his toolbox, turned around, and ran past the Sniper and the Medic. "C'mon fellas!"

The Sniper took a peek around the corner. The Engineer's blue toolbox had dropped open and was rapidly unpacking into a level 3 sentry. A giant group of zombies were moving past it, heading their way. As soon as the sentry was complete in setting up it opened fire. It was mowing down the zombies ahead of it, but multiple zombies made it past the Sentry and started chasing the Sniper and the Medic.

The Medic dropped the toolbox he was carrying, and reloaded his revolver. Halfway through one of the zombies had already reached him. It reached it's arms out and spread it's jaw as far as it could. The Medic delivered a fierce kick to the creature's stomach to knock it over. Before it had gotten back up the Medic had finished reloading and turned the creature's head into a red mist. The Sniper pulled the Medic back "We've got to retreat, Doc! I'll cover you!"

"Ja!" The medic fired a few shots at the oncoming horde, taking down a few of the creatures. He turned around, attempting to reload while moving.

The Sniper already had depleted a few clips of SMG ammo, but it did not seem to faze any of them.

The background noise of the sentry barrage died down, signaling that the Sentry had run out of ammunition. A loud roar echoed across the field.

"Not good."

"Hey, saw-bones! Over here!" The Engineer was hiding inside a half collapsed building. He had quickly constructed a barricade of junk to hold back any of the creatures long enough for him to escape. He called out to the Medic.

"Where's the Sniper?"

"He said he vould cover me." The Medic barely made it over the barricade without injuring himself on one of the spiky poles attached to it. "I zink zat he vill be here soon."

"There he is!" The Engineer pointed at the far end of the field. The Sniper was running at top speed, being chased by a ton of zombies. He ran past the Engineer's hiding place. The Engineer wanted to yell, but the Medic put his hand on the Engineer's mouth. "Ve cant hold zem all of."

The Engineer turned around "Shouldn't we be helping him?"

"1 dead, or 3 dead. Vhat do you want?" The Medic glared at him.

"How did you two even start to work together? You can't just drop him like that."

"Yes I can!" The medic raised his voice "He is ze one vit ze zombies behind him! Und he's RED, ve don't need no RED's!"

"Shut up." The Engineer said, restrained. The Medic could suddenly hear the moaning outside. Multiple zombies were trying, so far unsuccessfully, to cross over the barricade.

"Verdammt!" The Medic looked around "Ve're trapped."

"Not completely." The Engineer pointed at a manhole in the middle of the floor. "What kind of idiot builds a damn manhole in the middle of a house?"

"Stop asking, start climbing!" The Medic leaped forward and opened the manhole, revealing a metal staircase that ended in darkness. The hole was barely big enough to be climbed through and it oozed with a disgusting odor far worse then anything the undead had every produced

"Anyzing is better zen dying." The Medic started to climb down, slowly disappearing into the darkness.

The Engineer examined his barricade. It wouldn't be long before it crumbled under the pressure of the creatures outside. It had held up so far, but the Engineer was sure it would not last much longer. He started to climb down, pulling the lid back into place.


	8. Wings on the Walkway

(Author's note: Well, I got to work again, but the next updates wont be as quick as these. School goes before fanfiction, yknow. Anyhow, here's a long chapter, and I really like it. It's quite low on action, but I definitely think this is one of the best one's I've written so far. The Medic and the Engineer explore the deep, and themselves a bit.)

(suggested music: watch?v=IOmA2ruTWqM )

The Engineer was getting quite bored. He estimated that they had been descending for over 5 minutes. The further they progressed the wider the tube seemed to become. Below them he could start to see a very faint flicker of light . Suddenly one of the engineer's guns fell out of his back pocket. The Engineer looked down, but the light was still too faint to see where the gun had fallen. However, his ears allowed him to peace together exactly what happened . First he could hear a soft thump, followed by loud and angry German screams, that faded into a large splash sound.

"Medic! Are you ok?"The Engineer peered down, doing his best to make anything out in the distance below him.

" Vhat just happened! " The Medic glared at the Engineer. "Somezing hit me, und knocked me off. I am fine, I simply landed in ze vater below."

"My gun fell outta my pocket. Sorry Doc." The engineer descended down into the same "room" the Medic had fallen into. Due to the light being so faint the Engineer didn't notice that the stairs did not notice that the stairs did not end on solid ground. His left foot reached for the next step, never felt solid ground. He lost his balance and ended face first in the liquid below him

The whole ordeal was so ridiculous that even the Medic had to laugh, losing all his worries for just a moment. The laughing stopped when the Medic saw something brown slowly float past him

"Ve need to get out of zis filzy vater."

"Yeah, whatever."

Slowly the Engineer and Medic started to move towards the flickering light in the distance. As they got closer they could see a small platform that was barely high enough to prevent it from flooding. The Medic dragged himself out of the water and emptied his satchel. The various bandages and syringes had been soaked in filthy sewer water. Everything could have been infected and was now useless. The only way in which he would be able to use his equipment would be after it would have been sterilized. Where was the Pyro when you really needed him?

The Engineer wasn't doing much better. Both of his PDA's had stopped functioning, and the Engineer was pretty sure that they were not going to be of use later. He looked ahead and behind them, but couldn't see anything else then the flickering light and the platform.

"Medic, have you got anything of a light?"

"Nein."

"Thought so." The engineer pulled out a screwdriver and started tinkering at the lifeless PDA's. A little while later he had rewired them into one strange looking flashlight operated by a large switch on top.

The Medic smiled a bit "If only zese tools of mine were so easy to give a new life." He tossed a broken Synge into the water.

"You ready to go, doc?"

" Almost." The Medic loaded up the rest of his satchel and attached it to his belt. "Vere do ve go now?"

"We came from there...so let's go over there." The Engineer used his light to point ahead at a slippery small stone path.

"If it keeps me out of zis flizy vater it is fine to me."

At path circled right, left, and right again. Both were unsure if they were actually walking in circles and if the path even led anywhere. Of course, they both had other things in mind.

"I haven't eaten since this morning. I could really go for some Bee Cave style BBQ. Some nice fat ribs with some delicious honey sauce , sausages dripped in melting butter, deep fried fish and a gallon of beer."

"Engineer, you are a master of all zings mechanical . However, shouldn't you know zat zinking und talking about food makes you even more hungry zen you vere before?"

"I can't help it Doc. This body was not made to function without food."

"Und mine is not ezer. "

"You mean, ether? "

"Ja. Und if you vere so kind to stop talking about food I vould be very zankfull."

The Medic was looking down at his feet, careful not to step in one of the cracks below. He would not want to end up cleaning his syringes all over again. Besides, he had other things to worry about.

The Sniper had been nothing more then a tool to him. Something to sacrifice when times got tough. He kept saying it to himself but didn't really believe it. For years and years he had been outright hating the RED spy for being a coward, a liar, and a Judas. Now, in how he had treated the Sniper, wasn't he doing exactly the same thing.

"Look!" Further ahead the room became wider, slowly turning into more of an underground cave then a simple plumbing system. Pipes covered the walls, sprawling back and forth through the entire room. The whole place looked more like modern art then simple engineering. In the middle of the room there was a deep hole , and to the left was another gigantic pipe that flowed into the abyss below.

"The more I start analyzing the structures here the more I want to whack the fool that built this."

The Engineer stepped onto the thin metal walkway that crossed over the hole below it. As soon as the Medic followed the Engineer could hear a loud creak. With a swift hand movement he signaled the Medic to get back.

"This structure doesn't seem safe." The Engineer slowly retreated. "That area over there has been wet for so long, it must have rusted." Some of the waterfall collided with the path ahead and the gray metal had turned into orange-brown rust

The Engineer took slow steps towards the middle of the bridge. With every step, there was a definite audible crack. However the Engineer didn't hear the sound of structural faillure, so he kept moving towards the middle. As he got about halfway he started to hear a slower, more deeper sound then before. All of a sudden the Texan stood still. The sound continued. Now, all of a sudden the Engineer leaped forward, jumping over the rusty area. He didn't stop until he had solid ground under his feet.

"Doc! I've got good news and bad news!"

"Vhat is it now?"

"The structure is definitely failing, but if you have quick legs you might just make it to this side. And if you get here, there's something you should see.

The Medic stared at the bridge. The weight of the Engineer alone had made it snap in the middle, and there was at least a 20 centimeter vertical gap between his end of the bridge and the Engineer's .

"Keep moving and you'll be fine! If you start, don't stop!"

"Jetzt geht los..." The Medic took a step back, and pulled out his medigun. "Neunzehn und neun Prozent? Verdammt!" He put it back on his back. No über, no protection from the fall. The Medic was very hesitant to move, but he also realized that there was no reason (outside of the fear) to stay behind. For a second he imagined that he was charging into a sentry-filled room with the Heavy at his side. Then, he went for it.

As the Medic stepped onto the bridge the slow and brooding sound began again, much louder then it was before. The Medic could see the gap between the two widening as he came close. There were no thoughts in his mind. He just had to keep going. His half of the walkway began to bend downwards even more the closer he came. At last, he had to jump for it. He reached for the underside of the walkway, and barely missed them. Now, the water was streaming down his face, almost knocking off his glasses. He slowly pulled himself up ontop of the Engineer's side, and lay there for a few seconds. His heart was pumping like mad , yet he forced himself to breath slowly to calm himself down.

For a short moment the Medic felt truly free, as if he could take on the world. Then, he heard the loud cracks, and realized that he wasn't out of danger yet. The other side of the walkway was starting to bend just like the one the Medic had ran over earlier.

"Don't just stay there, Doc, MOVE!" The Engineer shouted.

The Medic rose to his feet, and ran towards the Engineer. The road ahead continued to become steeper until the Medic reached the point where he knew he would fall over. Before that happened he reached for the metal sides of the walkway, and used the thin metal strips to slowly climb up. The strips seemed to bend easily, so the Medic fastened his pace of climbing

The Engineer got onto his knees and held out his gloved hand as far as he could without falling. He reached for the Medic. "Grab my hand, doc."

"Ja!" The Medic grabbed the Engineer's hand as tightly as he could, while the other hand reached for the edge .

"3...2...1.." The Engineer pulled as hard as he could, while the Medic pulled himself up . The Engineer felt his muscles complain, but he refused to let go until the Medic was more then a meter onto solid ground.

Both men relaxed against the wall. Out of nowhere, the Medic started a small giggle that ended into a hysterical laugh. The Engineer couldn't help himself but join in. It took a while for the laughing to die down.

"Let us never do zat again."

"Agreed, Doc. That there was some mighty fine runnin' , if I may say so."

"Zere is zis...German saying." The Medic said, inbetween his loud breahts." Wenn Sie sie wirklich brauchen haben alle Menschen Flügel." The Medic took a second to translate it into English "When you really need them all men have wings. "

"Sounds pretty , but what does it mean?"

"As much as, in times of crisis we all have the power to do amazing things. I zink I have just received my wings today."

"With that long jump you did, I'd definitely believe you had wings." The Engineer stood up, and pulled the Medic along.

"I do not zink I could perform it again. Und, vhat vas zat zing you said was here?"

"That right there." The Engineer smiled. The room was much smaller then the previous one, however, it was filled with all kinds of desks and office supplies. However, none of them seemed to been used in years, and they were all covered in dust.

"Zat's..odd. Vho vould vant to vork here?"

The Engineer smiled. "Voever it vas zey vare nawt vere." He put up a silly rendition of the Medic's accent anf responded to the glare the Medic gave with a nonchalant "Hey, if you say things like that I'm bound to mock you over it."

"Vhatever. I need to sterilize my tools. I'll set up a fire in zis corner. "

"Fine by me, just don't be a pyro and burn everything in the darn room. I'll look if there's anything I can find to help us." The Engineer's stomach groaned. " And some food, of course. "

The Medic went to work, using his bonesaw for the unconventional purpose of sawing actual wood. He processed multiple desks into smaller planks that he could stack up and ignite safely. He created two stacks of wood, one to start the fire with, the other to keep the fire going.

Now came the tricky part. The Medic had no way to properly start the fire, so he had to improvise. The reached for one of the dusty desk lamps and ripped off the top. The Engineer wasn't the only one that knew about rewiring things...but he was a lot better at it. The Medic unscrewed the bulb and cut off the top of the lamp. Then he pulled out two copper wires and stripped the plastic around them. He twisted both into straight lines, and smiled at his work

"Zat could vork." The Medic stood up, dragging his decapitated lamp along to a power socket and plugged it in. To check if it functioned he put his finger in between the two wires. He felt a shock and pulled back quickly.

As soon as he had finished the last problem the next appeared. The closest electrical socket was meters away from the safe place he established to be the site of the fire. Undeterred the Medic reached for another bureau to cut it apart again. This time he only took one of the bureau's legs, and used his bonesaw to start scraping wood from the side of the leg. He collected this wood shrapnel and placed it under the "lamp".

Carefully he picked up both wires as far from the unexposed edges as he could. Then, he started to push the wires against each other on top of the tiny stack of wood he had created, hoping that one of the sparks he was making would ignite the wood. It took quite a few attempts, but eventually the medic had created a small fire.

The Medic reached for the leg he had scraped off earlier, and put it inside the tiny camp fire, unknowingly robbing the small fire of it's oxygen. The flames subsided, and the leg had only blackened a bit. "Verdammt!" He started scraping again when he noticed that the burnt side of the leg had started to glow like charcoal. Quickly, the Medic walked over to his fire spot and carefully put the glowing leg underneath his orderly stack of wood. He quickly scraped off new shrapnel on top of the glowing parts and started blowing as hard as he could. The glow became brighter, and minutes later the Medic was leaning back in one of the office chairs, idly throwing new planks onto the fire.

"I'm back." The Engineer was carrying 4 cans. " This is all I could find. That room over there used to be some kind of food room, but I can't even recognize what kind of vegetables they had there."

He stared, amazed at the fire the Medic had created.

" How did you do that?"

"Ze wings, of course." The Medic pointed at the empty desk chair beside him.

"Did those wings of yours bring a matchlight , perhaps?"

"So vhat is in zose cans?" The Medic's stomach sought to change the subject. "Meat, tons of it." The Engineer slowly sat down next to the medic, enjoying the heat of the fire

"Now if we had some honey it would just be like home." The Engineer opened one of the cans with his screwdriver, eager to get his stomach filled.

"You forgot ze beer." The Medic handed the Engineer a small beer bottle.

"Where did you get that?" The Engineer took a sip, relieve to see that the beer was in order.

"I allways carry zwei with me. In case I really needed zem. Now is as good as allways. " The Medic pulled out his last beer out of his satchel.

"To our BeeBeeQue" The Medic smiled as he took his first sip. "It tastes like home, does it not?"

"I couldn't agree more."


	9. Rescuing RED

The Sniper could barely breathe, but something inside him kept pushing him forward. Perhaps it was the fact that his legs were still functioning, or the realization that he would die if he stopped. He ran, harder, and longer then before. Finally, he was there. One more field to cross to safety.

There was nothing in his mind. His body felt weak and tired, but he kept pushing himself to his limit. With a last burst of strength he once again pulled ahead of the zombie horde. When he reached the iron door of his "home" he had no time to open them, so in stead he walked against the wall before reaching for an edge above him. There he hung, with a zombie horde below him. He knew that he would not last much longer, so he pulled himself up, reaching for the next edge, and finally climbed onto the roof.

There was nothing left in him, and he collapsed onto the ground. His heavy breathing slowly subsided, and there he lay. His eyes started to fail him, and moments later he fell into a deep sleep. His body had given everything it could, and now, he could only rest.

* * *

(An emotional moment ahead, and also the part where I start to call the people involved in the story by their real names (the names I made up.) I did this because i wanted the characters to feel more like humans, in stead of just people who's name was their job description.)

(suggested music ; watch?v=QFaAUw5fp8M )

It must have been hours later. The Sniper slowly came back to his senses, but everything was so strange. The Sniper could barely describe the feeling, but he felt as if he was just living, for the first time. He stared at the stars above him. He never wanted to leave that place, where he was alone with the stars. It reminded him of his childhood, using the small telescope in his room to look at all the shiny lights in the sky.

"I'm...home. Made it." he said to himself

"You're not at home." The Sniper couldn't grasp where the voice was coming from, but it sounded extremely warm and familiar. The temperature started to rise, and the Sniper realized that the night must have ended. But the stars were still out.

Curious, he slowly got onto his feet

"You're so far from home. So far, far away from us."

'Who are you?" The Sniper stared at where the light is coming from

"He misses you, but he'll never tell you. You know how he is."

"Mom?" The shining lady smiled.

"It's good that you call us, but it's just not the same. I know you're all grown up, but I can't wait to have my little son back at home again. I miss you, Patrick." The Sniper stared at the vision of his mother, that slowly started to cry.

"Mom, don't cry. I'm coming for you, I promise." The Sniper slowly rose to his feet. "I'm getting out of here as soon as I can."

"I know you have your own life, and your own job..." She started to cry even harder. "But I'd love to see you again. I'd love...to talk for real. Please, come back home, even if it's for one weekend . Whatever happens, we will always love you. Best of wishes, your mother"

"Mom! I'm coming for you! Don't go!" The light started to fade, and the vision disappeared.

Patrick started to look around for any sight of his mother, or anyone else. In the distance, on the roof, he could see a figure slowly approaching.

"Hello? Mom, Dad, is that you?"

He started running towards the figure, but stopped in front of it. It was a zombie, one of the zombies had made it onto the roof. In the weak , confused state that Patrick was in, he could only do so little. The zombie leaped for him, with his mouth open, however Patrick held him back with one arm. The Zombie gnawed and started chewing on his right hand, ripping off multiple of his fingers. Patrick kicked the zombie away and started running towards the entrance to get inside his safe home. It was a miracle that he even made it that far and managed to open the door. Then he slammed it shut behind him and collapsed against the door.

Slowly, he stare at his hand. He was missing his pinkie and ring finger. Not only that, but he was dead. The infection would spread and he would die, alone and miserable. Then, his eye fell onto his wall of different blades. Perhaps, he could save himself. Perhaps he could live, and see his parents again...even if it was for 5 minutes.

* * *

(Note, this is still the same chapter, however, this part takes place a few moments later...)

The Engineer and Medic were on their way up. Sure, they made much more horizontal progress then vertical, but they carried on nonetheless.

The knew they were close to the surface when the Engineer's walkie-talkie suddenly started to burst to life. Through the cracking and creaking of the device they could start to make out sentences.

"Hello? Anyone there? Anyone?"

"That sounds like ze Sniper."

"Yes, Sniper, we're here. This is the engineer speaking. We're currently underground, making our way back up."

"Not...the Sniper." The words barely escaped from the static

"You're not the Sniper? Who are you then?"

"My name...is Patrick Mundy. The Sniper does not exist...any more."

"What happened to you , Sniper?"

"Got bit by … a zombie." The Engineer moved the walkie-talkie around to establish better contact

"Mein Gott." The Medic blurted out.

"Chopped off my...own hand. Stopping...the bleeding. Where's doc?"

The Engineer handed the walkie-talkie to the Medic "I am here, Sniper?"

"Mundy...Patrick Mundy. Tell me, doc...what's your name?"

"My name? My name is Günther Beckenbauer. Vhy do you ask?"

"Because, Gunther, I'm bleeding out. I think I'm starting to die." The signal improved, and now they could make out Patrick's words with ease. "Could you please save me, Gunther?"

"Ve are on our vay. But, if you vant to survive untill we get zere...you have to stop ze wound, get some cloth or vhatever and stop ze bleeding by shutting down the blood flow. Tie the cloth aroudn your arm and pull as hard as you can.

"

"Got it."

"Now, ve are going to get you, stay upright against a vall or somezing and patiently wait. Vhatever you do just must not fall asleep. Do. Not. Fall. Asleep."

"Understood..."

"I vill keep you updated on our progress. Ven ve get outside you vill have to guide us to you."

"If I live to see that happening, I'll help you, but if I don't...make me a promise."

"A promise? Again?"

"Yep. If I die today you and Engie leave the base and go tell my parents I didn't make it. They live near Yarrawin, on the far end of Billybingbone Brea, Australia.

"Begriffen. But zat shall not happen, ve vill get to you soon."

"Hope so. Good luck, Gunther."

"You too, Patrik."

The idiotic way in which everything was constructed was not helping the Medic's and Engineer's journey. Often they found a way up that led to a dead end or was built so idiotic that the Engineer wouldn't even walk on them. But their persistence paid off, and now they had finally found their way to het outside. Slowly they pushed away the manhole. The Medic slowly rose out of the hole, looking around if they were safe. As he turned around he stared down the barrel of a shotgun. The person holding the gun was extremely familiar. The Medic stared at the bald face and couldn't help himself but smile

"DOCTOR!" The giant, overweight RED Heavy grabbed the BLU Medic under his shoulders, lifted him into the air...and hugged him.

"Heavy! Put me down."

"Yes Doctor." The Heavy gently put the medic onto the ground, until he realized that his lover was wearing the wrong color uniform. He turned aggressive, and reached for his shotgun.

The Medic did nothing but stare into the Heavy's eyes

"You are not Doctor, you are SPY!"

"I am ze BLU Medic. Not a BLU Spy. "

"BLU is still BLU!" The Heavy pointed the gun between the Medic's eyes. "You will regret day you faced me."

"Listen here, Heavy." The Medic gave an absolute death glare so scary that the Heavy took a step back. "I have no time for zis argument with you." The Medic pushed the gun sight's away from his face. "Now, I have someone to save, und I have NOT worked ZHIS hard to die right here! Eizer you go with us und save ze Sniper or ve vill leave you in zhis room."

The Engineer climbed out of the manhole, a bit disturbed by the sudden realization that they were in the RED spawn. The Heavy was the only one in the room, but there were a bunch of zombie bodies lying near the door

The heavy pointed the shotgun at the Engineer, only to have the Medic violently whacking it out of his hands.

"Ve have no time for zis you dumkopf! I vill explain it to you on ze way. Get your stuff."

"Doctor, you are my enemy."

"Silence! I vill not hear about zis again untill ve save ze Sniper. Understood!" The Engineer noted that the Heavy 's body language suddenly turned submissive.

"But.."

"Nein! Now move!"

"Ja Doctor." The Heavy reluctantly started to pack all his equipment. When the Medic told him he couldn't take a minigun because they were in a hurry the Heavy almost punched the German.

"I need Sasha, und Tomislav, und Natasha." The heavy said defiant

"Heavy, ve need to hurry und move fast. Bitte, let zem stay here, und I promise you ve vill be picking zem up after we save ze Sniper."

"I do not go out with no gun."

The Medic delivered a fierce slap to the Heavy's cheek, so hard that it even took the Engineer off guard.

"Ve vill return. Now, let us move!"

"Njet."

"NOW!"

"Ja doctor. " The Heavy kicked aside one of the bodies, and reached for het metal handelbars of the door. With a great ease he lifted open the door, allowing the Engineer and Medic to go outside.

The Heavy wanted to grumble at the Engineer but one look from the Medic forced him into silence.

"Good news, Sniper. Ve have found ze RED Heavy und ve are bringing him to you. Ve are at ze RED spawn, how do ve get to your base ze fastest?"

"RED spawn... that's not that far. You see the sign that says "Jimjom" or something , with a happy face on it.

The Medic looked around, and saw a billboard with the letters "Jimi Jam" plastered onto it.

"Und?"

"If you pass that, take a left. There's a control point ahead, if you pass take the..." The sound suddenly fell silent

"Sniper? Hello? Are you there?"

"Yeah...I think ...so. Not feeling good, doc."

"Keep yourself together. After the control point, zen what?"

"Just keep going ahead until you see the place where I saved you. One right, cross the field, and you're there. But, there's a horde of zombies there."

"Ja. But ve vill be ready for zem. Hold on, my freund."

"Doing the damn best I can, doc."

* * *

The Sniper's instructions were spot on. Soon the Medic recognized the place where he had been surrounded by zombies, and used the über to get through.

"All right, if ze Sniper is correct, zere will be a horde of zombies on ze next turn. Stay here." The Medic walked around the corner, but quickly returned

"Und ze answer is yes. Zey haven't seen us yet so zat is a plus. However, how are ve going to get past zem."

"Let me take a look." The Engineer carefully leaned past the corner of the building.

"Yeah, that's going to be an issue. However, Doc, I might just have a practical solution to that lil' conundrum." The Engineer reached for the rope he had tied to his belt. He pulled a metal strip from a nearby door, and started whacking it with his hammer to form a crude looking hook. He attached it to the rope, and flung his contraption at an edge nearby. The hook caught hold behind an iron bar, and the Engineer tested if it could carry his own weight. He climbed up the rope, detached it from the bar and gently threw it to the medic.

"If we can get close enough to that building, say through any other building we can try to get this hook attached to one edge of the building. From there it's a small stage act to get to the Sniper."

The Engineer smashed open the window behind him with one fierce strike of his wrench. Careful not to stab himself on the sharp pieces of glass everywhere, he descended one floor and opened the door to let the others inside.

The wall were so flimsy that the Heavy could easily punch through them. Like a unshaven rampaging bear he simply ran at the walls ahead to smash it into pieces.

With the heavy's help they easily made it to the other far end of the building, near the Sniper's base. The Engineer threw the hook at the nearest corner of the opposing building. He pulled the rope tight and attached it to the balcony edge.

He pulled at the rope like it was one of his guitar strings and smiled when it gave a satisfying "Twang!" sound.

"All right, doc, do you know how to climb across a vertical rope?"

"Not really." The Medic gulped as he stared at the zombies below

"All right, simply cross your feet around the rope." The Engineer lay on his back to demonstrate this technique. "Use both hands to grab onto the rope and pull yourself forward. You could also try just using your two hands but that would be less safe and also leave your legs hanging. I don't want you to become some kinda zombie pinata."

"I see." The Medic grabbed the rope and first let himself hang from it. Then he pulled up his legs, crossing them around the rope just like the Engineer had demonstrated. Slowly he started moving towards the building the Sniper was hiding in. The zombie horde suddenly noticed the bumbling German and started moaning, waving their arms in a futile attempt to get to him.

Now the Medic was starting to get nervous. He stared down every 5 or so seconds.

"Just keep on goin' Doc, you'll be fine."

"It is not as easy as it seemed!" the medic yelled back. After what seemed like an eternity the Medic reached the other end of the rope and climbed onto the roof.

The same zombie that had attacked the Sniper now started to move towards the Medic. But the Medic however was not at all exhausted. Even before it got close the Medic had filled it's head with a fine set of bullet holes. Before he moved past it he first checked if it was truly dead by reloading and emptying his clip into the creature's neck

"Sniper, I am here!" The Medic pulled open the door to inside, to find the Sniper collapsing onto the floor. Apparently he had been lying against the door.

The blood was everywhere. The sniper was extremely pale, but managed to create a smile

"You're..here."

"Hold still."

"Not much...else I can do."

The Medic pulled out his medigun, aiming it at the missing hand.

"Zis might feel strange, but zat's ok. If you feel nozing, please do tell me." The Medic activated his medigun, and blue particles came out of the long end. The Sniper's stump started to stretch, slowly forming bone, and slowly shaping itself into a hand. As soon as he had completed the process the Medic began to check up on the Sniper

"My medigun unfortunately does NOT fix your blood loss. Your body vill have to fix itzelf, by taking lots of rest."

"It was at that point that the Medic realized that the Sniper had fallen asleep a while before.

The Engineer had crossed the rope, signaling the Heavy to stay behind

"I'm not sure if the rope can carry you! We'll clean out the zombies from up here, and then you can come in from the front entrance."

"How is he, Doc?"

The Heavy didn't like the implication that he was overweight but he did realize that living was more important then being stubborn.

"Ze Sniper vill be fine...with some rest."

"Great! We're all set, except we have to get the Heavy inside."

"I zink I might have an easy was to clean out ze zombies." The Engineer and Medic picked up the Sniper and gently placed him on an improvised bed.

At that point the Engineer noticed the fine selection of weapons on the wall. "I never knew Snipes had anything like this stacked up."

"Now zat ve could use zose to clean out ze zombies." The Medic pointed at a selection of weapons on the wall. He believed the Soldier called it the "Libbery Lawnchair" or something as silly like that. The Medic grabbed the rocket launcher, checking if it was armed. It was quite heavy, at least, much heavier then he had expected. The Engineer saw him stumble and grabbed the far end of the rocket launcher.

Painfully slow the two lifted the device up the stairs. Uneasy the Medic aimed the rocket launcher at the zombie horde over the edge. He pulled the trigger, bracing himself for the knock back. When it eventually came it only slightly knocked him off his feet, and quickly recovered.

"Would ya look at that!" The Engineer smiled at the destruction below. Not only was there a large hole in the floor but seemingly half of the zombies had been reduced into soup. The Medic picked up the rocket launcher he had just dropped and launched his second rocket, again with devastating consequences...for the undead. Now, only a few were standing around. The Medic aimed for the middle of the group and hit the trigger.

"Ok Heavy, come over here now!"

The RED heavy had been standing at the balcony for quite a while now. All the things he had seen, they confused him thoroughly. His team was gone, and there were deadly creatures everywhere. What was he going to do?

The zombies had been devastated and the heavy only counted 4 survivors. The Medic aimed again, but only herd an empty click.

"Scheiße." He tossed the rocket launcher away, and start to look for his revolver. He realized that he must have dropped it during his emergency surgency.

The Heavy jumped from the balcony and landed with a big bang. The last few zombies noticed him and started to reach for him. With a few aimed shotgun shots he easily dispatched of them.

From the side of the building the Engineer popped out of the door to signal to the Heavy to get inside.

" C'mon!."

The Heavy quickly crossed the distance and shut the door behind him.

"That was some nice shootin', Heavy."

"Thanks." The heavy looked around at all the weapons in the room "What is this place?"

"Snipes favourite camping spot. I knew he liked to be a camper but this..."

The heavy noticed the BLU medic standing near the sleeping RED Sniper. He immediately recognized the doctors look of extreme worry.

"Doctor." The Medic turned to face him "What is happening?"

"Sit down, my freund. Zis vill not be a short story."


	10. Destruction Driving

(Author's note: "Boom, I'm back, dummy!" Yep, I'm back, it took me quite a while to get this chapter done as I was not quite sure where I was going with this. Now let's continue our story…actually, no, one more thing. As I look at the characters I've written I realized that I wrote them to be much three-dimensional as the game portrays them. I've also came up with names for all of them, and woo boy, I'm gonna use em. Anyhow, I think I did screw up with the switching in names but right now I'm too lazy to look for those spots. Now let´s...OH! One more thing! I found an old fanfic of me, of Chrono Trigger, I completely forgot about writing it, but now that I look back at it for the first time made me realize that it has a lot of potential. Strangely enough it also stars someone that tries to surivive. More on that, coming soon. NOW BACK TO OUR SHOW!)

The Medic told the Heavy everything he knew. From his start, the death of "his" Heavy until the moment when they received the Sniper's message. The Heavy was silent afterwards.

"So what now?" he asked.

"You tell me. I haven't heard from the administrator in so long. I don't think we're really employed anymore." The Engineer was working on building a new sentry out of the Sniper's weapon collection. He had rewired two separate rocket launchers on top of an improvised rig. Not only that, but he had ripped open of the machines that lay around to use their inner parts into his new sentry.

The Medic had left the Sniper for a while to cook some soup for the three of them. He almost burned his own hair when he examined the backburner.

Meanwhile the Heavy simply sat on a chair, leaning against the wall. He did not feel like doing anything at all but sit in silence. His mind was slowly processing the changes that had happened to him in the last few hours.

The Medic handed the Heavy a can of warm soup and a shiny clean spoon. "Zere you go."

"Thank you, Doctor." The Medic reached for his own can and sat next to the Heavy.

"So what are these...things we fight?"

"I have no idea." The Medic sighed. "I only know so little about zem. After someone is bitten by zem zey get sick und slowly turn into zese creatures. Zey move slow and are veak but zey have so many numbers. It is wunderbar zat zey can kill by a mere bite. Ze Sniper was bitten und he only lived because he stopped ze infection...by cutting of his hand." The Medic stirred into his soup.

"Ze respawn is down, you know zat right?"

"Da. I know. I vas with doctor vhen ve got surprised. I am here, Doctor is not."

"So ze respawn collapsed after reviving you."

"Da. Stayed in spawn after Doctor not appear."

The Medic nodded. "So, you felt ze process of becoming one of zem"

"Njet. I vas eaten alive."

The Engineer shivered. "Do you two mind, I'm making a sentry here!"

"Fine zen. Heavy, have you accepted zat ve need to vork together? I had to take a vhile to accept ze Sniper as my freund."

"Is very strange, yet alike." The Heavy took a while to think of words for what he was feeling. "You are not Doctor, but so close. My team is gone, but now I have new team."

"Zat is good, my freund. Ze Sniper saved me, und likevise. Vorking for BLU feels so long ago. I don't zink I've slept in a vhile. Or, far too long ago." The Medic let out a slow sigh, and put his hand on the Heavy's shoulder. "But I must say zat I am very happy to see you."

The Heavy nodded silently. Meanwhile the Engineer delivered a last few swings with his wrench

"Now that there is starting to look like a proper sentry." The Engineer pulled out a big red switch that he had wired into the back of a sentry. "I am pretty sure that this lil' fella will do just fine."

He hit the switch, and the sentry buzzed and beeped into life. And by that, I mean, exploded.

Various bits and parts were flung around the room and even pelted the Medic and Heavy. The Engineer was flung back into a wall and hit one of the support beams of the building.

"Can't ve ever get some rest here?" The Medic wiped the junk from his coat. He picked up his medigun and pointed it at the engineer. To his surprise however the Engineer easily stood up and started to examine what was left of his sentry.

"Guess one of the launchers was jammed or somethin'. I should have checked for that." The Medic shook his head and smiled. At least his branch of science had less chance of exploding every time he tried something. Then again, the Engineer was more focused on his machines then on his teammates. Outside of the Soldier and Demoman none of them were prone to random explosions.

"Bloody hell, Truckie!" The explosion had awoken the Sniper who now sat upright. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Welcome back, Sniper." The Medic held out his hand to help the Sniper up.

The Sniper was hesitant for a second, and then he grabbed the hand firmly. He stood up, and pulled the Medic into a very surprising hug.

"Vhat?" the medic exclaimed.

"Thanks, Gunther. You saved my life, again." The Sniper let go of the baffled German "Doc...I saw a hallucination, just before I got bit."

"A hallucination? Do tell me, bitte?"

"It was me mum, and she wanted me to come home. I think she was reading some kind of letter to me. One she never sent, apparently."

"I think you just caught a sunburn, son." The Engineer barely looked up from the new sets of plans and drawings he was creating.

"I've had sunburn before in the Outback, and I damn well know that was not sunburn! I think it was a sign, or something." The Sniper stared up for a bit

"A sign from whom?" The Heavy, half covered in debris was unsure what to make of this.

"I have no idea, really. I kinda believe in God, but then again, not really. Anyhow, good to see you Heavy. How did you get here?

"Doctor came from sewers and took me along." The Heavy shook off the debris and sat down again. "Not like I have things to do."

"One more thing, I want to know your names."

"Why?"

"Because, if you didn't notice yet, the wargames are over. There's no further point in calling each other by our job names any more. And there's no meddling administrator to complain about it. I don't exactly think we're on BLU and RED anymore."

"I agree, Patrik. Zat was your name right?"

"Happy to hear you remembered, Gunther."

The Engineer laid his plans down to rest while he approached the Medic and Sniper. "Engineer is my job, not my name. That would be Dell Conagher."

"Ludvig Pootis." The Heavy didn't even bother to move a single muscle outside of his face.

"Now, we can't stay here forever. Eventually we're gonna run out of food and ammo. We need to start moving." Patrick looked

"Vas it not your plan to stay here?" Günther did become a bit concerned at the sudden changes that Patrick was going through.

"Well, I realized one thing. Me parents are still out there, and they could be exposed to these zombies. Last night I put on the radio to keep me awake. It was last night, right? Can't really tell, there's no windows in here." Patrick looked to find any clue on how late it was

"It vas zhis afternoon. Ze sun vas setting vhen I found you. It must be about zehn or somezing."

"I couldn't get a proper station; all of em were broadcasting static. Except for one, who had a prerecorded message playing over and over. It was as much as "The Australian Government urges you to be calm while evacuating this region. Stay away from the infected and try to head for the coast. This, is not a local thing. It's spreading."

Dell started to look unnerved. "If they're evacuating and one of the people on board have been bitten.."

"It vould spread across ze world. I already zink it is doing zat right now." Günther nodded slowly, deep in thoughts over how they could stop the spread.

"Melanie!" Dell shouted.

"Melanie?" Günther and Patrick spoke in surprise

"My daughter! She could be in danger."

"And me parents as well. This means that we need to go and get them. The more we wait, the more danger there will be for both of 'em. Me...Gunther, have you got any family in Germany?

"Of course, but ve are not zat close. I have not seen zem in years, und I am pretty sure I do not vant to."

"Righto, we need to get out of here. Truckie, you got your truck close?"

"Just as close as your camping van, just outside of the large gate."

"What happen when we find family?" Ludvig raised his hand to pull the Sniper's attention.

"I...I...err...I don't know. But it's better than just sitting here and hoping for the best."

"Zere is one zing." Günther smiled in such a manner that it made Patrick and Dell uneasy. "If ve are leaving here, vhy don't ve burn ze place on ze vay out?"

"Are you bloody mad? Was the pyro your brother or something?" Patrick looked quite annoyed as well as surprised.

"I can assure you zwei, he vas not. Und, ze fire vould obviously spread, taking a lot of zese creatures along. Ze less zere are of zese creatures alive ze better."

"I reckon I can see the reasoning behind that." Dell nodded slowly. "It aint exactly pretty but neither are they."

"Is good plan." Ludvig nodded.

"All right, all right. We'll burn the place after we checked we got everything. Anything else?"

"Not für me." Günther shook his head.

"Notes, notes, where did I leave my notes?" Patrick searched a bit until he found his stack of papers. "All right , the northern gate is about 5 minutes of walking. With zombies involved, that would be at least 15. Not that far."

"We pick up our vehicles, move 'em here, load 'em up and burn the place. I can create a radio controlled ignition system and hardwire it into the rear of pyro's flamethrowers. That way we can set the place on fire when we already left." The Engineer reached for one of his technical wonder devices, the one he called the wrangler. It looked like a gun with some kind of receiver disc placed on the front of it.

"All right, Dell, how about you start working on that while me, Gunther and L...l..."

"Ludvig."

"Ludvig go and collect our cars. You got your keys on you?"

Dell tossed the keys at Patrick's face, so hard that he had barely enough time from leaving a key sized bump in his face. "Thank you, I guess. You two ready?"

"Actually, nein, I vould like to sleep first. A good night and day rhythm is very important you know."

"This again, doc?"

"Ja, now let me go to bed. I know you have slept but ve need our rest too. It's good to see you awake but we're not going out zis night."

Patrick let out a sigh. "All right then, but don't expect me to tuck you in."

The next morning...

Günther slowly rose from another night on his improvised bed. Either he had been extremely tired last night or the blanket he lay on had turned into a proper bed. But that was far from the most surprising aspect of his bed. Ludvig lay next to him, but he was sure he went to bed alone.

"Guten mörgen mein freund." Günther slowly laid the blanket over the loudly snoring Russian.

"Good morning, doc." Dell was back to tinkering at his radio-controlled flamethrowers. He had lined 3 of them up against the wall and had strapped them onto a stand he must have produced overnight.

"Don't you ever need your sleep?" Patrick had been up, carefully planning and scribbling on his papers.

"Says the guy that stayed up all night."

"I slept before, you didn't." Dell whacked one of the flamethrowers so loud that it woke up Ludvig.

"I'm done, by the way. How about you?"

"I was ready to leave last night." Patrick did a quick check on his equipment. 'So, doc, when do we move?"

"After zis." Günther was heating up some soup for himself and Ludvig. "Ve can go."

The journey to the gate was far shorter and far les eventful then expected. Ludvig, Günther and Patrick stood close to the gate, observing how to open this huge Iron Gate. On the left side there seemed to be some kind of control panel hidden inside a small house.

Günther was the first inside, checking out all the strange wires that ran over the place into the central control panel.

"I zink zat zis button shall open ze door." He eagerly pressed the large red button, wondering if he was correct. The smile on his face disappeared when alarms started ringing all around him.

A pre-recorded message from the administrator was loudly broadcasted "Alert! Someone is trying to leave the premises! All personnel to the main gate!"

"Dammit, doc! Do you want to wake up every zombie around!" Patrick looked around him, ready to pull out his SMG at a moment's notice. For a short while the message kept repeating itself until Günther managed to shut the alarm off. Outside Patrick let out a sigh of relief. The alarm had not triggered a wave of oncoming undead, yet...

There was a loud creaking sound, and a slow grinding sound that followed it. The Iron Gate started to open. Patrick could clearly hear the sound echoing through the base. And then, in the distance, he could see a large group of zombies heading their way.

"Gunther, we need to go. Now!"

The gates had fully opened and it was silent once more. But the damage was done, and the horde was approaching quickly. Günther, Ludvig and Patrick ran through the opened gate. A small distance away from them stood Patrick's camper van. Quickly he pulled his keys from his pocket and started to open the door. He took a quick peek behind him . The horde couldn't be much further than 100 meters away. In rapid succession he opened the 4 locks that kept the door in place, and pulled it open. Ludvig barely passed through the opening and as soon as he stepped inside the floor shook a bit. Günther signaled to him that he should sit down on the bed, in fear that he might just wreck the floor with his weight.

Behind him, Patrick pulled the door shut, and had put two of the locks back in place when the zombie horde had reached the van. They started banging their hands against the walls, desperate to get to the three men inside.

"Bloody hell that was close."

"Let us get back to Engineer."

"You mean Dell." Patrick corrected Ludvig

"Care, I do not." Ludvig had grabbed Patrick's cushion put it against the wall so that he could lean against it.

"Zere must be at least zwenty of zem. Perhaps even a hündred." Gunther observed one of the zombies through one of the small windows. "So fascinating, and yet so deadly..."

Patrick finished locking the door and sat down on the sofa on the other side of the small room. There was barely enough room to let Günther sit down as well.

"I can't reach the cabin from here, which means that we will have to break out. " Patrick reached for three beers in fridge. Günther peeked inside and could see that at least they wouldn't die of thirst...for the coming week.

"How about ve open ze door, and let zem come in. Only one can enter at ze time so ve can take zem al on one after one. Should not be too hard."

"I don't really want to risk it. These things are so desperate I see them pushing in here three at the time. Perhaps if I can open that ventilation there we can get on top and easily take them out from there." Patrick pointed at a very small ventilation shaft above him, which would barely be able to let them through.

He nearly jumped when he heard a loud bang and the slow, agonizing sound of deforming metal.

"BLOODY HELL THEY'RE COMING IN!" Patrick reached for his SMG and aimed it at the door while Günther did the same with his two pistols. When nothing else happened the two slowly lowered their guns.

In the time that Patrick and Günther were considering ideas Ludvig had come up with a far better one. He smashed two of his fists through the thin metal wall that separated them from the cabin and used the openings he had made to create a man sized hole.

Patrick wanted to yell at Luvig for destroying his property, but considering the circumstances he had done him a big favor. "Thanks." He muttered, as he crawled through the hole into the cabin.

It had a difficult start but it wasn't long before the van had made short work of the zombies in front of them. Patrick maneuvered the van out of the dirt onto a nearby road.

"Zey are still behind us." Gunther and Ludvig had opened the large window on the back of the van as wide as they could. The plastic window shook heavily, as if it was about to come off, but it did allow them to fire through the opening.

"Should have gotten Sasha." Ludvig grumbled at how little damage his shotgun seemed to do.

"Ve vill talk about zat later, I promise!" Günther adjusted his glasses, lined up his shot and turned another zombie head into a pink cloud of death.

It was quickly obvious that Günther was the one that was dealing out meaningful damage. Ludvig had gotten so angry that he decided to simply throw his shotgun at the chasing zombies. He chucked it so hard that the unfortunate zombie that got hit by it now lost all connection between his head and his legs.

Günther stared at Ludvig with an unsure look, before starting to laugh.

"Zat is indeed aonzzer vay of killing zem!"

"I have more!" Ludvig smiled as he started to apply pressure to the hinges that kept the back window in place. He moved them forward and backward until they snapped and the window came loose. It floated shortly before crashing into the group of zombies that was chasing them, taking out the bulk of them. Günther quickly counted only 4 zombies remaining, and one revolver clip later they were safe again.

"You can turn around now, zey are done."

"The Sniper looked around, and finally behind him. He immediately grumbled at the damage Ludvig and Günther had caused. "Do you two yobbos want to blow up my home while you're at it.

"We live." Ludvig answered. "Is more important."

"How am I going to drive around with a van with a bloody HOLE IN THE BACK!"

"Dell is vaiting for us, ve should go back."

Patrick let out a sigh and started to turn the van around.

"We're not going back until we've picked up that window."


	11. A Fitting Farewell

(Author's note; due to circumstances I am currently stuck in an empty as hell train station in some backwater town. There's literally no other place to sit but inside the photo booth so I've written the start of this chapter with my own personal GladOs that is suggesting that I use the key buttons to move and use the green button to select what kind of photo I want to make. Friggen wonderful. Then again, it's better than sitting on the ground…barely. This place is so empty I can hear the ticking of me hitting my keyboard (gently) across the room. I think I should be getting on with this before I get angry at PhotOs and break her screen. Sure, I'll die of neurotoxin but it's better than hearing her voice for the 34th time. ON TO THE STORY)

"What took you so long?" Dell checked that nothing was nearby until he hit a button and the large door on the side of the building opened

"We ran into some difficulties, be glad we're here in one piece." Günther carefully parked the Engineers truck next to the decaying conveyor belt, while signaling the Sniper to follow.

"What happened to your van? I thought you always kept it in pristine condition?" Dell laughed.

"A heavy and zombies don't make a good combination. Can you fix up the two holes in my van, please?"

Dell didn't even bother to look at the damage, and closed the gate again"That will only be five dollars and five minutes, please."

"This is my home, be happy I don't ask for rent." Patrick handed Dell the keys, and a stack of plastic that used to be his rear window.

"Yeah, whatever." Dell threw the shards into a bin and parked the van next to his improvised workbench. "Let me work my magic for a while. How about you go out and set these babies at vital locations."

Dell had surely spent every second of his time on perfecting a device hell-bent on destruction. It was like the Pyro and the Demoman had both gained immense engineering experience and worked together to create the ultimate weapon…outside of nukes, of course.

Günther shivered a bit. He couldn't help but feel disturbed at the image of the pyro. In his mind he quickly remembered how painful it was to die by incineration. He had always felt that he would rather be stabbed in the back or shot in the head then to face the pyro. In that short moment between life and death, a short, quick burst of pain almost felt…nice. To have your insides and outsides burning was hellish Every single time his body caught fire he wished he could pop his über or die already.

(author's note: Your PhotOs has evolved into a WhinOs. Congratulations. Enrich your life with a a neurotoxin blast to your face!)

The Sniper seemed just as disturbed as he was. Did they think alike, or was he worrying about his parents.

"Patrick, are you Oké?" Gunther put his hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, not really. Me parents live quite desolate, but it's only a matter of time until a zombie gets to them." He pulled out a map. "We are about…here." With his finger he drew out an imaginary route. "And Yarrawin lies here. Assuming we have nothing blocking our way, I estimate a traveling time of 3 days, if nothing is blocking us. At worst, it could be a week, or even two weeks. From there I suggest we get ourselves a ship."

"Why a ship?" Ludvig put his own large fingers on the map, pointing at Sydney airport. "Why not air o plane?"

"Does any of you know how to fly a plane?"

"Nein, I do not think zo, but I vould be able to perform it with anough practice."

"Same here."

"I do not fly planes. Controls are too small for me." Ludvig broke the beer bottle in his hand to illustrate his point, flinching at the damage the glass shards caused.

"Ludvig! Vhat ZE FAK are you doing?!" Günther pulled Ludvig's hand open, and started pulling out the shards one by one.

"I was showing point. Small planes not made for real men."

"Ludvig, ve all know you are ze strongest here, you do not need to show zat off every time. In fact, if I had not been zere zese wounds could have started to infect. Leading to eventual rotting and death of your hand, and your own life would follow." Günther took out a srynge and inserted it into Ludvig's blood vein.

Ludvig started to flinch his right arm and made a low growling sounds

'Don't be such a baby. Zis vill only hurt a kleiner bit."

"I AM NOT BABY!?" Ludvig grabbed Günther with his still bleeding hands and lifted him into the air, all while letting out a ferocious roar. He wanted to crush the German's skull, the pain in his hands whipping him into a large burst of strength and rage.

"PUT HIM DOWN! NOW!" Patrick had reached his sniper rifle and was now peering through his…

(Oh you have got to be kidding me. A power outage? A frikken power outage! There is no way that this is not some kind of practical joke. My bus isn't leaving for another hour and now the frikken power is out. Thank god for a battery on my laptop

There's this saying: you don't know how mutch you need something until you no longer have it. Case in point: slidey slidey doors. Pretty darn wonderfull but USELESS WITHOUT A POWER SOURCE. I'm trapped in a god damn room, it's half past twelve and all the trains have stopped running an hour ago. Guess I'm staying here for the night. I feel like breaking the glass but A. that would break my laptop and B. get me a fine.

You know what, the weirdest thing is of this all. WhineOs is still working. It's the only source of light outside of my Pc. All the lights outside have gone out. What kind of idipot makes a battery powered photo booth. I can't take it anymore, excuse me, while I move my stuff away from this frikken machine. "Use the green button to select your choice of photo!" How about I select my fists to open up your ugly-as-hell cabinet and rip out your audio card! I'm going to take your computer chips, and EAT THEM! Rrrrrgh, so annoying.

The constant whining of PhotOs has gone down a bit. I'm putting up some dubsteb to compensate for the akward silence and the muted mumbelings of PhotOs. Back to the story.)

The short moment of confusion on Ludvig's face was enough for Günther to take advantage of. He wrestled one arm free, and reached inside his coat for another syringe . This time has was going to make sure he pulled out the right one, and quickly jammed the syringe into Ludvig's neck blood vessels.

Ludvig dropped

Wait, did that booth just move itself around the corner. I mean, its'a freaking booth , inanimate. No I'm just making up stuff man. The is place is just getting to me. Back to ste story.

Oly shit that things just moved, I mean, holy shit holys hit this is osome kind o f tweeeping angles I mean oh my god its facing me I fee I don't know what to do I can take my eyes off it Whyt swefqew dirnefjillp-

Wow. It's been one day later and wow. I was totally high yesterday. I mean, I don't do drugs but I cannot have consciously written down such confusing stuff in-between the rest of the story. Somebody must have slipped me like some drugs. Or alcohol. Or tea. One of the three. I'm sorry for the apparent mess that happened, but I'm still wanting to find out why someone tattooed a number on my arm. For those who want to know the numbers are "4 5 1 21 8 14 18" and yes, I am getting rid of them as soon as I can. On with the story.

Ludvig fell onto the ground, and Günther let out a small chuckle. "I believe I gave him some adrenaline, instead of ze alcohol I wanted to use to clean out his wound. Ah vell, at least he is out now." He reached for his medigun and healed all of the Heavy's wounds. "He is O-kay."

"Next time you pull out one of your srynges make sure it doesn't turn the Heavy into a rampaging bezerker!" Patrick grumbeled.

"I vill, I vill." Günther stared at Ludvig. "Entschüldigung für zat."

2 days later…

Dawn of the third day of preparations.

For the last two days the four men ahd been preparing to leave the compound and venture into the world beyond. Everyone had been busy with their own tasks. Patrick was mapping out their route and helping Ludvig with moving the explosive barrels into strategic locations, while Dell was armoring their vehicles while teaching Günther on the finer points of engineering. Of course, Günther's expertise was in the field of biology, but that didn't stop him from building his own weapons and mediguns.

Last night they were finaly done. Günther and Dell sat down and once again shared a beer.

"Ve are running out of zem, are ve not?"

"Fraid so. But we're not staying here, so it doesn't matter. "

"I feel like ve have built Uns a tank. Und einer…mini-tank?"

The Sniper's van now had armored plating on all sides and had two rocket launchers at the front end that could be reloaded through a tube that led into the inner cabin. On the inside they had stripped out most of the "luxuries" the van offered to make storage space. Dell had created a system of crossed iron bars to create boxes of space to store ammo and food in. The driving section of the van had been left untouched, but they added a pillow so that Patrick could sleep there. They had also reinforced the small room above the driving section so that it wouldn't collapse under the weight of a non-specified sleeping Russian. The only other function they added was a small ladder that lead to a opening in the roof. On the roof they had duct-taped multiple weapons and ammo boxes down so that in case of emergency they could always flee to the roof and fire on the zombies that threatened them. As well as double duct-taping down a small mattress on the Patrick's request. Dell figured it would allow for more comfortable sniping, or something.

Now he turned his gaze to his own truck. Plating all around, and in the back they had replicated the box of metal strips they had created for the inside of Sniper's van to allow for more storage. On the back of driver compartment there was a small door that led to the top of the box. On top of the compartment stood one of the Engineer's level 2 sentries, with an odd pair of handles on the back end. Closer inspection revealed that he had removed all tracking electronics and that the sentry had to be controlled manually. He didn't want to count on the wiring inside the sentry lasting too long (you never knew when or how it failed, and besides most of his sentries were blown up a few minutes later then the moment of their creation) On all sides of the box they had attached a small "wall" that ended in spikes to ensure that you could only reach the "sentry" from the inside of the vehicle. In the box itself a small sleeping space was kept that Dell had isolated with some of the materials ripped from the camper van's insides. The room was tiny, but big enough for somebody to sleep in. Probably Dell, since he was the smallest one out of all four.

"I slept like bear. And you, doctor?"

"I tried out Dell's truck. Und, to be fair, for what it vas it vas quite comfortable." Günther started warming up a new soup can to share with Ludvig."

"All the supplies are inside. We're ready to go." Patrick stepped out of his van and closed the door.

"After we finish zis, ve will leave." Gunther began cutting open the soup can to rip open the top. Somewhere in his mind it reminded him of opening up a new patient on his operation table. With a faked smile he handed the warm can over to Ludvig, while opening up a new one for himself.

It was just before 12 o' clock when Patrick finally did his final checks and gave the green light to leave. Ludvig and Patrick in the van, and Dell and Günther in the truck. Günther climbed behind the sentry, eager to try out the bigger kind of firepower. Perhaps he could even start to see what Heavy saw in his gigantic choice of weaponry. Now that he thought about it, the Heavy always seemed to have an issue with size. Big, bigger, he always wanted to be the biggest in the group. Not to mention he called other people small. He put those thoughts away, focusing on the task at hand.

For the final time they drove outside the still-opened gate. Shortly after Dell stopped his car and climbed onto the top of the van, inviting the others to join him. Even Ludvig managed to climb on top.

"Safety one off." Dell ripped off the plastic case surrounding his customized trigger.

"Safety two off." He put a key in the back end of the device, and unlocked the large antenna.

"Armed, and ready to go." To finish his procedure he lifted up the two red levers in the middle of his device. "Who wants to do the honors?" He gently nodded Patrick.

"Sure, why not." He reached for the device, examining the work Dell must have put in it.

'Just pull those two levers down at the same time, and the place will go boom."

Patrick took a deep breath. "I've always hated that place."

With a slight delay between each other, three large explosions erupted all throughout the compound. Debris was sent flying everywhere and fires quickly spread.

"Demo would be proud." Ludvig widely smiled at the thought of the explosives expert reacting to such large explosions.

"Let us go." Ludvig added . "We are done here."

"Agreed. This place is behind us, and now the road is ahead."

**END OF PART ONE**


	12. Alice Springs Street Anarchy

**Part Two - Returning Home**

(Author's note; I did do some research into Australia and I realize that I have not picked the best route to their destination. But I'm sticking with it, so…*puts on sunglasses* YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- I mean, wrong meme. I'm sticking with it so *puts on sunglasses* deal with it. Also, look it up, all the places exist, and im watching google maps as I am writing this next set of chapters)

Patrick had been deep in thoughts ever since they left their base behind. Mostly about his parents, but also about what kind of future he really had. The road was empty and the sun was going to set in an hour or a bit more. The "convoy" (perhaps the smallest convoy in excistance) had setteled into a familiar pattern. 2 hours of driving, followed by a 10 minute stop to stretch and survey their surroundings. They had started out in one of Australia's most desolate regions, about the last place where someone would build a wooden city and have a bunch of mercenaries fight in it. Patrick slowly shook his head. "Of course you build a city in the middle of nowhere so that no one can hear the sounds of battle. Moron!" He said to himself.

They passed a sign that said "13 miles to Alice springs" Immediately he thought of where they had started, about 20 miles west of Tennant Creek. With his pathfinding skill and and the basic shape of motorways in Australia he could easily come up with the best route. He would have saved them another day of driving if only Barkly highway, or as it was going to be called "Route 66", had been completed. Since the road's construction would have forced them to take a ton of time traversing the basic inland roads of Australia. So the only realistic option was taking a detour and driving onto highway led them all the way to southern Australia until it would allow them to take a left onto highway 32 at Port Augusta . From there it would be one more day of traveling until he would finally be home.

(AN: Look it up. I dare ya. :P)

So far they had not passed by a large city like the one that lay ahead. The road ahead seemed to be clogged with cars, and Patrick hit the car horn. He hit the brakes , making sure that Dell had herd him.

"What is it?" Ludvig stepped out of the van.

"I don't know, Patrick was the one that stopped us."

'Look, mates." Patrick stepped out of the car, pointing ahead. Three gazes followed his finger, until they saw the large set of cars that swamped the road ahead.

"You allways were the one with the best eyesight. I hadn't spotted them yet."

Patrick reached for his sniper gun, and climbed on the back of his van. "It's an enormous car crash. Most cars are facing our way, which means that they were all fleeing from something. The place is swamped with zombies. Not exactly where we should head next, but it's the quickest route." Patrick laid down the map and pointed at where they were right now. "This is where we are. This is where we're headed. There's basically no way around Alice Springs, outside of just going completely off into the wild. Which means that we are going to find our way through this mess.

"Hey, Patrick, look over there!' Dell pointed to a basic paved road that ran parallel to the highway. Patrick used his sniper rifle to gaze ahead, following the path.

"That path does lead to the outskirts of Alice Springs. We could pass a lot of the chaos, and perhaps get some fuel as well."

"I do not think we should go." Ludvig added. "Is night soon. It is not a good idea to fight when we can not see."

"Agreed. Ve are too far away from zem to be a danger, ja?" Günther looked at Patrick for any kind of information.

"I think so." Günther let out a sigh of relief releasing the grip on his revolver. "But it can never hurt to drive one more mile away from them. I'd rather take extra precaution then too little."

"We set up camp, one mile back." Dell climbed in the truck, pointing at Günther to take the wheel.

Günther and Patrick had cut down a lot of branches from a nearby tree and stacked them inside a circle of stones. One quick burst of one of Pyro's flame throwers set the entire stack on fire, and keep them warm for the rest of the evening. Meanwhile Günther and Ludvig were preparing a kind of soup made from Patrick's soup supply, spiced up with a few chumps of meat they had stolen from an abandoned home near the highway. It was still soup, but now it tasted less like water with a mushroom flavor added to it. They poured their creation into a large soup kettle they could hang over the fire.

"You know that society is ending when you eat soup every day." Dell laughed harder at Patrick's joke then he should have.

After dinner Dell had grabbed his guitar and began singing old western songs. Patrick listened with only one ear and one eye, the other half staying aware of his surroundings. He did not want to be surprised tonight. The fact that Ludvig and Dell were missing didn't struck them until Patrick's van suddenly started rhythmically moving up and down.

"Well I'll be.." Dell acidentaly dropped his guitar (and his yaw along with it) on the ground. "So the Spah was tellin' the truth about 'em."

"You didn't know?" Patrick seemed more annoyed then surprised.

"No…but…it just ain't right. A man, doing it with a man…" Dell looked at Patrick for confirmation of his views.

"I agree. It's wrong." Dell smiled and nodded slowly. "Doing it on the battlefield. Outside of battle, they could do it like like rabbits for all I care." The smile on Dell's face disappeared.

"As long as they don't try to do it to me it's all fine."

"We were not made to be doing it with each other. It's just completely wrong. " Dell felt extremely uncomfortable by the continuing bouncing of the van.

"What might be wrong to you might be right to them. Who's to say who is wrong and who is right?" Patrick leaned back, much less eager to continue this conversation.

"I have standards, and.."

"Dell, You are a professional, so act like one. You've been dealing with a bunch of nutballs for so long and this one little detail is what makes you cringe. You've been hanging around with the Pyro who is all over the map in the crazy department, so really, them doing it doesn't make much of a difference. You have worked with IT for years and it never seemed to be disturbed by the thing that runs around with a glove on its head killing people! You know what, Dell, you know what? From what we know right now, the whole world is going down the crapper. Society is ending, and thus nobody gives a FUCK ABOUT YOUR STANDARDS!" Patrick forced himself to calm down.

I'm going to bed." Patrick rose to his feet and climbed into the small sleeping space in the back of Dell's truck, leaving the Texan to be alone with his thoughts.

The next day Patrick led them onto the the paved road. It swung back and forth but in general it followed the highway. While they did pull the attention of a few zombies they were too fast and too far away to attract them. It wasn't long before they were driving past the outskirts and suburbs of Alice Springs. They passed a some kind of hole on the left when Günther nodded to Dell to stop.

Dell estimated the distance to the nearest house to be 200-300 metres, but saw no creatures walking about so he handed the walkie-talkie to Günher.

"Ask him if we can stop here, first."

"Patrick, are you zere."

"Yea, what is it?"

"I see zhis road ahead , it takes us away from Alies Springs. Should ve take it?"

"You sure of that, doc?" Patrick carefull drove past them, taking the lead.

"Looks good enough, let's try it!" He took a left onto thin asphalt road. To their luck they saw no stranded vehicles blocking their way. After a short 5 minutes of driving they noticed that the asphalt road turned into a loop.

"Doc, it's spinning, it's going nowhere. "

"Verdammt!" Günther stepped out of the truck. "I zought zat zat vould take us away from zis place!"

"It did, it just leads nowhere" Patrick tried to find the best route to continue until he noticed the path in the sand. It was blocked by a small wooden barrier that read "NO ENTRY- SERVICE ROAD ONLY" Patrick climbed onto his van, and surveyed the road ahead.

"I do think that we can take that road, it would bypass some of the suburbs but eventually we'll run into one.

The road was small, and barely suited for the large van that drove over it. It led through a very thin forest, and followed a dried out riverbed on the left, and in the end they were forced to use the riverbed as their own personal highway. Now they passed from the wilderness back into the suburbs. They crossed one road, but the sudden appearance of several zombies made them hightail past them, returning to driving over the riverbed. Günther climbed onto the platform in the back of the truck, turning the "sentry" around to fend off the few zombies that were chasing them.

Patrick was dodging trees left and right, ignoring the sound of the firing sentry. Suddenly he could make the structure ahead of them. A metal barrier that separated them from the road that crossed the riverbed. He immediately hit the brakes, while wildly hitting his car horn. Dell quickly followed suit, and reached for his walkie-talkie.

"What the hell are you doing!"

"There's a freaking barrier ahead, we can't continue, we need to turn around and find another way.

"Doc is fending off the few zombies behind us but we will surely have pulled some attention now. LEFT!" Günther and Patrick looked to the left and saw a stream of zombies heading for them.

"GO RIGHT!" Patrick reversed his car and suddenly spun around. He noticed an opening in the line of trees on the right end of the riverbed. They had stumbeled upon a park, quickly taking a right turn onto the parking lot. Günther was busy taking out as mutch of the chasing creatures as he could. It seemed like for every creature he killed he two more seemed to join the chase. It wasn't long before they were being attacked by creatures on every direction. They were slowling down because of all the zombies they had to run over. Ludvig had climbed on top of the van and was wildly firing away at the horde.

The convoy was now passing through the city centre of Alice Springs. Patrick and Dell franticly communicated back and forth on what to do next. Patrick had driven through Alice Springs before, but never while trying to avoid a horde of the undead. With the sparse recollection of this town he managed to steer them away from the city centre, onto an empty road that connected the centre to a nearby suburb that was still being constructed. The horde was relentless, and there was no time slow down.

"Where are you leadin' us to, Patrick?"

"I DON'T BLOODY KNOW! ANYWHERE BUT HERE!" Patrick yanked at the steering weel to make a sharp right turn.

"We're going back to the city again, you know that right."

"You see that long stretch of elevated land on your left? The only way through that is through the highway. We've evaded it for so long, now we just need to make it through!" Dell wanted to check up on Günther but the pressure was too much. He could do that later. He forced himself to focus on his driving, and followed Patrick into a sharp left turn. They passed by a luxury hotel or something with an attatched golf course on their right.

"After the casino take another right, followed by another left. We're going back onto the highway!"

The closer they came to the highway the more cars were littering the road. Patrick and Dell continued to perform more and more dodging manouvers just to keep going. Patrick leaned out of the window "LUD! GET DOWN FROM THERE! IT'S GONNA BE A WILD RID."

"IT IS WILD NOW?" Ludvig climbed down and closed the opening above him.

The highway had so many vehicles blocking it that Patrick decided to open fire. His eyes darted towards the trigger mechanism for the rocket launchers. 8 rockets were launched at and impacted the mess of cars ahead of them. There was no thought of turning around in Patrick's mind. He expected to simply smash through onto the highway.

The sheer amount of cars ahead of them proved far stronger then what Patrick had anticipated for. They quickly slowed the van down to a dead stop in under 2 seconds. The G-forces were too strong and Patrick had his head smashed against his steering weel. There was some confused shouting, followed by nothing but darkness.

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**Author's note: as it is right now my dad's condition is going downhill fast. He has not been able to digest anything for a week and if it doesn't improve soon he won't make it. I'm giving you guys a heads up that I might suddenly stop updating this story. If I do, you know what happened. I'm hoping that he recovers, but if he doesn't… I might need a while to get myself back on track. I hope I'll be able to post the next chapter soon, and perhaps it will take quite some time, but I promise you that I will be back. I hope. If not….I would like to thank all those that read, reviewed and followed this story. Thank you. Whatever happens, you have given my confidence in my writing skills, and I'd like to thank you for that. I didn't believe I could write since my last fic on a different site got burned into the ground but now I know. Thank you, in every language I speak.**

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One more thing. I didn't spell check this chapter because I wanted to finish it off quickly and go back to my dad, sorry for all the mistakes

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_"You can only see the brighter side of life if you manage to live through the darkest of days."_

_- DenHollander_


	13. Dancing with Death

(Author's note; my father has stabilized. He is still weak, but stable. Secondly, I'll be uploading my newest (actually Its somewhat old) fanfic to this website. It is remarkably similar to this story, yet it lacks zombies. The first set of chapters will be uploaded and eventually I'll get to writing the next few. Life is busy and busy and busy, so I 've decided to make this chapter 12.5. This is because I've changed my mind on something etc. etc. etc. Let's get on with it)

Dell hit the brakes and managed to stop his truck mere centimeters before he would have hit Patrick's van.

"Patrick, you ok?" Dell checked his walkie-talkie twice, but all settings were correct.

"Ludvig is injured. The impact knocked him over into one of the storage boxes. He's bleeding like crazy! What do I do?"Patrick put the transmitter away, and focused on the task at hand. Gently (but with a lot of difficulty, he laid the Russian down on the floor, disturbed at the amount of blood that was streaming out of Patrick's head. He removed his shirt and tried to wrap it around Ludvig's head, in an attempt to stop the bleeding, or at least slow it.

Meanwhile Dell informed Günther of what had happened. Immediately Günther leaped over the front set of spikes, and ran over the car's hood.

"Hey! I cleaned that yesterday! " Dell let out a grumble at the clear dirt imprint that Günther left behind.

A lot of zombies were closing in on him from all sides, but Günther flat out ignored them as he climbed onto the back of Patrick's van.

"Patrik, let me ein!" He banged on the valve. From the inside Patrick could only hear the banging, so he immediately reached for a nearby shotgun

The sound continued, and suddenly stopped. Patrick only realized who was on the roof when he recognized the human sound of German insults

Quickly, Patrick opened the valve and let the still-swearing German in. As soon as Günther realized the state that Ludvig was in he immediately fell silent. Patrick closed the valve again. "Doc, how is he?"

Without any emotion on his face Günther turned around and glared at Patrick. "Drive. Get us out of here. NOW!"

The sudden change in tone even caught Patrick off guard, and he immediately sat back down into the drivers seat, reaching for his walkie talkie. For some reason it was extremely slippery, and it took quite a few attempts to firmly grasp it. As he reached for the button to talk he realized why it was so hard to grab on to it. His hands, his arms, were all covered in blood. Somehow, he had completely missed this detail, or his mind didn't want to accept it. It was far worse then that though, he also felt somewhat weak. Was the blood on his hands from Ludvig, or was he critically injured without noticing it, either.

"I don't have time for this." Multiple zombies surrounded the two vehicles, climbing from underneath and inside the massive car crash ahead of them. He ignored how he felt, and pushed the button of the walkie-talkie

"DELL! FOLLOW ME!" Patrick put the car in reverse, bumping into Dell's truck. Dell wanted to yell insults at Patrick for damaging his car, but the urgency of Patrick's message made him put his truck into reverse as well.

The two vehicles moved backwards, distanciating themselves from the oncoming horde and the hell of cars that was blocking their way. With quick gear change Patrick's van started moving foreward, and took a left, leaving the road back onto one of Australia's many dry riverbeds. The van shook up and down violently before setteling into a soft pattern of vibrations.

Patrick's mind was nothing less than pure focus. With seemingly boundless confidence he dodged tree after tree, making sharp turns left and right. From the back of the vehicle he could only hear German insults because Günther wasted another one of his syringes. He couldn't tell when the next turn was coming so he simply tried to continue treating Ludvig's wounds despite the horrible circumstances. Dell was doing his best not to bring any more injuries to his car, but he noticed he was falling behind. He put the pedal to the metal, his truck suddenly bursting forward. He was not going to face this apocalypse alone. Especially not since the sun would be setting soon.

Eventually the tree line ended into a flat sandy road. But to the right of them the highway, and it's massive pile-on of cars continued for quite a while. Eventually they passed the last few houses on the lower outskirts of Alice Springs and an airport on the left. Patrick kept driving for half-an hour until he finally decided to pull over onto an empty stretch of road.

Günther was too busy still treating Ludvig that he didn't notice that they had stopped driving. Patrick stepped out of the van, feeling quite unsure if he was dreaming or not. He couldn't even feel his feet any more, yet he still managed to walk up to Dell's truck and open the door.

"That was bloody close, wasn't it?" Patrick smiled widely.

"It was fine until you decided to crash into a massive roadblock." Patrick stopped smiling. "Though, really, you did a damn fine job leading us so far. But.."

"What?"

"How is ludvig?"

"Oh, right." Patrick's mood darkened. He suddenly wanted the feeling of uncertainty back

. "Don't know. Doc's still busy with him."

Dell nodded. "What exactly happened?"

"When we hit the…stack of cars, Ludwig was standing. He toppled and fell onto a corner of one of the ammo boxes we had."

Dell cringed. "That's not good."

"He was bleeding like crazy." Patrick reached for a bottle of water stashed on top of Dell's dashboard, and started to wash some of the blood from his hands.

`Its getting cold. I´d better get a fire started.` Dell reached for something he had taped underneath his seat. From underneath he pulled out something that looked like a very small flamethrower. With a flick of his hand it started to produce a small starter flame. Dell walked up to one of the nearby trees, and selected one that had the furthest distance from the others. One click later and they now had a tree-shaped fire.

`I didn´t know you know about pyrotechnics…or whatever the thing is Pyro does…did.` Patrick struggled to form complete sentences. All of a sudden he felt dead tired.

`You´d be surprised how much you can do with engineering.` Dell put his pocket flamethrower back into it´s hiding spot.

`yeah , whatever. Can you engineer some dinner? I´m starving.`

Dell was about to knock on the door when Gunther opened.

`How is he?`

´Not good. Not good.` Gunther let out a small sigh. He sat down next to Patrick, and reached for one of the soup cans they had been cooking on the fire.

`You know vhy I barely ever can save anyone from your head-shot?`

`Because without a brain you die.`

`Zat…is one vay to say zis. My medigun is

not good at repairing ze brain. It is ze most complicated part of our body, and after five-hunderd years of science ve do not know all about ze vay it vorks. Ze body is simple, ze soul…is not. Ludvig has a hole in his skull, and I haveve been able to repair it as much as I could. I do fear zat he has permanent brain damage. He is in a coma, und…perhaps he might recover. Ve vill have to track down his process.`

Patrick let out a deep sigh. `Ok then…` From one of his pockets he unfolded a map of Australia. Somewhere to the left of the middle lay Alice Springs. He pointed to where he estimated where they were. `We´re about here. We need to follow this road down for quite a while. We´re in luck though, this was the last big city for miles and miles ahead. We´re safe…for now.`

`If only Ludvig was avake to be here.` Gunther idly stirred his soup.

`Hey, if you think like that he´s never gonna wake up. If you don´t have faith, you´re dead inside.` Dell placed his hand on Gunther´s shoulder.

`Danke.` Gunther nodded. `I need to check up on him.` He walked back to the van, his soup still left untouched.


	14. A short message

Due to the untimely death and demise of my father I am hereby suspending this story. I no longer feel like writing a story as bleak as this and I hope that I can pick up the pase later. I hope, I can, but for now, I need to focus on my family, my education, and my friends. Thank you for reading, and reviewing, and I hope to be back.

-DenHollander


	15. Returning to my stories

I am back. It's been a month since my father died. Things have been changing so fast…and everything just keeps going. But…I'm back.

One of the pieces of music my dad selected for his funeral was "Show must go on" by Queen. I take the title as a literal last piece of advice of my dad. The show must go on, and it will. Now, I will be continuing Making Do, and the Lifemaker . I'll try to stick to a schedule of switching back and forth between these stories every week, so you'll have one chapter for Making Do per two weeks, and the same for the lifemaker.

I'm doing my best to get back on track.

I'll try to have the first new chapter up today.

The show must go on!


	16. Observations in the Outback

Ludvig patiently sat on the floor, with a strange look on his face.

Günther entered, just as confused."You're…avake. Already."

"Da. Had good sleep. Why so serious, doctor?" Ludvig wanted to scratch the back of his head, but Gunther immediately walked over to him and pulled his right arm away from his head.

"It is best…if you were not to scratch zere." Günther did a quick examination of Ludvig's wound. It was just as open and gaping as before, but for some reason Ludvig was mostly fine. He applied three sets of bandages, rolling them around Ludvig's head. Patiently.

"You fell, und injured your head. Do not touch it or ze bandages, for your ownen good. Hmmph…It is like ze days in Teufort, only zen zere is real risk of dying. Permanentally." Gunther got on his knees, and shone a light into Ludvig's eyes. "Zat seems normal. Gut. Can you valk?"

"Think so." Ludvig reached for one of the boxes and lifted himself up. He looked a bit confused at first, and unsure in his movemtns, but quickly he came to his senses.

"Ze ozzers are vaiting outside. Let us move."

"Well I'll be danged." Dell smiled. "Did you kritzkrieg his heart, or somethin'? What happened to the whole coma thing?"

"Coma? What is coma?" Ludvig sat down next to the fire, and reached for one of the cans.

"Nothing. Ze important zing is that you are in ordnung." Günther signaled at Patrick and Dell to shut up.

"But ve need to talk about somezing. If I had not acted, Ludvig would have been in big schit. Vhat if I die? Vhat zen? Ze next time you vould get injured you would not be able to heal yourselves und others. I vill have to teach you all basic medicine, at ze least."

"Medicking is not my thing, doc. I know about mechanics, not humans."

"Und you call yourself an ohmnidisciplinery scientist? Zere is allways ze risk zat I could die, und you should be prepared for zat."

"Can't really argue with that. But, Günther, can you at least wait until we're completely away from society?"

"I thought we were. That's why you stopped, right?" Dell looked extremely worried.

"There is a small town not much more than two miles back. It was the last town for quite a while, and by that I mean hundreds of miles. It should be safe, since I doubled our minimum distance to not attract any more creatures. But as it happens more than you'd like to, all your planning can suddenly explode into nothing. Always be prepared for anything."

"That is good plan. So you were preparing for zombies for years?" Ludvig opened the cup of soup by violently shoving his shotgun into the lid and breaking it open. With one mighty gulp he swallowed the contents of the can like any of the others would drink a cola bottle. Eagerly he reached for Günthers can and drank it as well.

He eats like normal. Günther smiled to himself. So far he noticed little signs of any kind of brain damage. But the scientist inside him knew that even if there were no direct symptoms there could still be a illness hiding inside your patient. He would have to monitor him closely.

"Excuse me, but I have to go check up on the vehicles." Dell rose to his feet and straightened his hardhat. "I need to be sure that nothing broke, even if it doesn't seem like it."

He opened his toolbox, and pulled out a set of screwdrivers. He eagerly laid them on the ground in front of Patrick's van, and opened the bonnet. He reached inside his toolbox again to pull out a modified mini sentry, even smaller than the usual mini-sentry. He placed it on his shoulder and pressed the large blue button on top. The tini-sentry produced a bright but small beam of light that shone with an oddly white colour.

Günther quietly observed Dell from a distance. The way he worked, removed parts, straightened them with his wrench and placed them back inside strongly reminded himself of how he treated patients on the operating table.

A pipe inside the engine released some steam. Dell coughed and pulled his head back. "Son of a…." He pulled out his wrench and hammered the pipe until the flow of steam stopped. "I can fix that." He said to himself, reassuringly. Suddenly Günther focused on the conversation between Patrick and Ludvig that was happening not far away.

"So this crocodile comes at me, it's jaw snapping at me. I reach for my rifle, but it stormed at me and put it's teeth into my right arm. I wanted to yell from the pain, but I realized I had no other choice but to grab my kukiri and whack it's brains in. I cleaned meself up, skinned the crocodile, and put it on a shield. And of course saved some spare skin for Mom's birthday. She still carries her leather purse around to this very day."

"What is crocodile?" Ludvig seemed confused.

"Do you really not know what a crocodile is? Here, I'll draw it for you." Sniper used his kukiri to draw lines in the sand that formed the ugliest-looking drawing Ludvig had ever seen.

"Crocodile is big monster." Ludvig didn't quite know what to make of the drawing, but he trusted Patrick enough to believe his story.

"They're big, but they're nothing compared to an elephant. Trust me, you do not want to end up on the wrong side of one of those. You think you can take some bullets, well, let me tell you, it cost me at least 15 shots before I managed to down one of them. And then you've got the bloody group coming after you if you're lucky. Thankfully though the rest of em ran away after I filled two of 'em with bullet holes."

"I fought bear once. It lost." Ludvig added.

Patrick nodded. "What kind of bear are we talking about?"

"Bear bear."

"A bear…bear?"

"The bear was a kind of bear. Da."

Patrick scratched the back of his head. He used to mistake Ludvig for simply being stupid, but now, the more he talked with him the more he felt as if Ludvig didn't quite grasp the English language as good as Günther did. Not that Günther was so wonderful at talking English, but when you talked to him you could always count on him understanding you. With Ludvig…not so much.

"Allrighty then. That should do it. " Dell packed his tools again and put the box inside his truck. "Phew, I feel all burnt out. I'm going for the night, fellas."

"I vill be right behind. I need to do one final check on Ludvig."

"Is not needed, doctor."

"Ja, it is. Vho is ze doctor, du or ich?" Günther smiled as he gently poked Ludvig.

"You are."

"Good. You may deliver commentary vhen you have completed a medical education. For now, just be silent as I unwrap zese."Günther walked over Ludvig's head and gently tore away at the tape around it. As he looked to observe the wound he quickly noticed that he needed a better light.

"Let us go inside. I need to have more light then zis campfeuer." Günther pulled Ludvig onto his feet and into the van.

So there he sat. Patrick used a stick to poke the fire, occasionally feeding it with another log or two. There was no sound, but the cracking sounds of fire and the soothing desert wind surrounding him. Without noticing it Patrick was smiling. He hadn't felt such silence in quite a while, or so it felt. For the first time in quite a while, there was…peace. Tranquility.

As if he was back in the outback, hunting on his own. Nothing but a knife and a gun to survive. And how he loved to survive, how he loved to hunt, and how he loved the silence at night. Patrick tossed another log in the fire.

But hunting didn't keep the money rolling in. Mom and Dad needed more cash to keep the farm running, and he knew they wouldn't make it on their own. He switched careers.

From shooting a crocodile to shooting some Russian smuggler. It wasn't hard to get his first connections in the mercenary world. A few kills on wanted outlaws did the trick. Before long he was traveling over the world taking out targets left and right. When mom asked where the money came from, Patrick told her. When he told Dad all he received was insults such as "crazed gunman" and "insane murderer."

Patrick sighed. He knew he'd never make it on medical school or some stiff-teethed place that trains lawyers and liars. But Dad kept on pushing, even after he kept sending them the money they needed to keep the farm alive. "You should be somebody, not a murderer for hire!" The insults alone made him go home less frequently then he used to. But he kept coming nonetheless. Couldn't leave mom behind, or so he said to himself.

Patrick tossed his stick into the fire. "I'm coming, mom. Pretty soon." He put out the fire before he went to bed.

THE NEXT SCÉNE IS NOT CANON. I SCRAPPED IT IN WRITING BECAUSE IT WOULD LEAD TO SOMETHING STUPID.

Now that we have that in the way, let me just say I left it in as a little extra.

"I agree, most modern soviet literature is unreadable propaganda, mate. I'm not saying that Tsarist Russia was a great place to live, but your literature definitely took a turn downwards after the revolution."

"The level of Tolstoy is not reached since his death. But, al literature is created to support the revolution. Not all Sovjet books are propaganda."


	17. Odessy of Insanity

"As zey say…vhat ze fock." Gunther looked around, confused as to what was going on around him. For some reason, he and Patrick were standing in the middle of nowhere. For as far as Günther looked, he couldn't see anything except a shade of grey that stretched into infinity.

"Is zis…a dream?"

"I don't know, but it sure as hell looks like it." Patrick checked for his sniper rifle, but couldn't find it strapped to his back. He did find his SMG and his kukiri attached to his belt.

"You got your weapons?"

"I think so."Günther checked his needlegun by firing it at the ground. "Everything is in ordnung."

"HELLOOOO! Anybody there?"

'I zink not. Let us move. Zere is no point in standing still anyvay."As Patrick wanted to move his feet something stopped him. As he looked at his feet he could make out strange glass chains that bound him to Günther.

"The bloody hell is this?" Patrick slashed the chains with his kukiri and they collapsed into a heap of glass shards.

"Zey look like…" Before Günther could finish his sentence the glass shards seemed to reverse themselves in time, putting themselves back together and forming the chains around their legs again.

"Mein Gott."

Patrick broke the chains again, but they repaired themselves faster than he could destroy them.

"It's…invincible, or something." Patrick idly tugged at the chains. "Bloody hell. Where are we?"

The grey surrounding them started to turn darker by the second. Patrick and Günther could suddenly hear the wind blowing all around them, as if they were in the middle of a storm. They covered their eyes instinctively, even though Patrick was still wearing his sunglasses

Patrick's sniper eyes instantly spotted movement in-between all the dark sand that was flying around. While he couldn't see any details, he knew for sure that something was approaching.

"INCOMING!" Patrick whipped out his SMG and fired some shots in the general direction of the movement. Meanwhile, Günther tried aiming, but the sand kept flying under and over his glasses, into his eyes. "SCHEIßE! I CAN'T SEE!" Even though Patrick was not more than a meter away from him he could barely make out what he was saying. The fact that he was firing his SMG told Günther enough to pull out his saw, ready to decapitate anything that came near.

Patrick herd something distinctive, inbetween the screeching and thundering storm. A sound that sounded familiar, yet it was quite different from what he remembered it. It sounded like…

The moment he realized that it sounded like the Soldier's laser weapon Patrick grabbed Günther by the shoulder and pushed him down, onto his knees. If they had been standing they would have been hit by the lasers that now just flew over them.

Patrick wanted to aim his SMG from his crouched position, but Günther tugged at his arm.

"What?"

Günther smiled widely, pointing at the small sparkles that were coming from his medigun. Patrick nodded silently. Not more then a second later Günther had activated his übercharge , and the both of them charged foreward into the still roaring storm. They could make out two figures in the darkness, and they were approaching fast. Lasers were fired, but the ones that managed to hit them were deflected without doing any damage.

Mere moments before Patrick could strike he herd another sound. It was definitely artificial, like the laser sounds from before, but it was different. While the lasers were short and low, this sound was a long, high-pitched beep.

A lot of things suddenly seemed to happen at the exact same time. The übercharge fizzeled out way before it actually should have, the barrage of lasers stopped, and the storm settled in less then 3 seconds.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL!"

"Hey, watch your mouth!" From the left of them he heard a voice that was both upbeat and dissapointed at the same time. Patrick, Günther, and the two people next to them all looked confused at the fifth person. "On second thought, don't watch your mouth because that would mean that your eyes wouldn't be looking at where you would be going."

IN the few seconds of silenced confusion that followed Patrick took his chance to examine the others in the room.

The first one, to his surprise, was a robot. It had two lasers strapped to its shoulders and a sound box for a mouth. Little bursts of smoke were coming out of the pipes on his back. The face was motionless, but the way it shook it's head definitely carried something human.

The man standing next to the robot was wielding a laser and a hammer. He had short brown hair and a matching moustache that reminded him of Saxton Hale for some reason. He was wearing clothes that were definitely worn and old, the colors faded long ago. The look on his face was one of utter confusion mixed with worry.

The last person was standing a bit further away from them. The first thing that struck Patrick about the man was that he was wearing a bright red top hat that seemed to clash completely with the bright orange jacket he was wearing. The black pair of jeans and the worn out green shirt made him look like a complete madman. Long ginger hair fell just over his shoulders. He was wielding a small metallic rod with a small light on the end. It was still buzzing the high sound from before. As he continued to talk he moved it back and forth all around him.

"Let's see what we have here…a boundless space bound within the confines of a Babylon matrix! Wonderfull!" He seemed quite excited by the completely insane sentence he just uttered.

"What are you talking about? Where are we?" The man with the hammer looked at Patrick and Günther and put his lasergun away.

"I'm sad to inform you that there is no where."The man put his glowing thing in his pocket. "A where would indicate that there is something to be found from which we can relate our current position to. " The man pointed around him "And it doesn't look to me that that's the case. That's the thing about these Freewills. They do whatever they want, defying time, space, and logic. They could rule the universe if they wanted to, but they rather chose to pick up, transport, and drop all kinds of things, from your TV remote to a whole planet, even."

"So…ve are inside somezing." Günther couldn't believe the man, but the strange man had one more explanation for what was happening then he did, despite how crazy it sounded.

"Close enough."

"We don't have the time to listen to your blabbering! Who are you and what do you want?" Günther was surprised at the way Patick yelled at the strange man. Patrick never raised his voice unless he was in real danger, and Günther had never heard him snap at someone like that.

The man walked up to Patrick and held out his hand

"Hello. I'm the Doctor. I Doctor things, and stuff" Patrick reluctantly shook his hand

"Doctor who?"

The doctor laughed. "Nope, it's just the Doctor."

The doctor walked over to Günther

"Guten tag, collegue." They shook hands "I am Günther Beckenbauer."

"Is that…a quadrant-focussed regeneration beam with shielding capacity?" The Doctor examined the medigun intensely "I've never seen one so compact before. Quite an achievement, judging by the fact that you're from earth during the 20th century. This is a prototype, correct.

"Ja, but it has been battle-tested."

As soon as Günther mentioned the world battle the Doctor's smile faded a bit. It wasn't much, but Patrick still noticed it.

The Doctor turned around, doing a literal 180 degrees to look the moustached man in the face.

"Oh, that doesn't look right." The Doctor dusted off some of the dirt covering the man's shoulders. "You might want to look into brushing your teeth…or your shoulders. "

With visible glee he examined the robot. "2300 A.D, definitely Oh, not a nice place, I've been there. Another prototype, indeed. Good work, collegue!"

"Ach, nein. I have not built zat."

"Oh, correct."

Patrick walked over to the doctor and pushed him back. "Shut up, you bloody wombat! "

"Patrick! WHAT ZE FAK ARE YOU DOING!" Günther grabbed Patrick by his shoulder.

"We have better things to do then listen to a rude weirdo."

The doctor looked quite offended. "Hey! I am not a rude person by Glafalaxian standards, and not by human standards either."

"Piss off, will ya!"Patrick pointed at the doctor. " I don't know you, and I don't wanna know you."

At first, Patrick couldn't process what had happened. Then, he noticed his head had moved to the side and the stining pain that rose in his right cheek. Günther had slapped him.

"Are you calm yet?"

Patrick gulped, breathing heavily. "I think so…." He rubbed his sore cheek, and took a deep sigh.

"Now, if you could all please follow me, without any shouting please?" The doctor was waving his sonic screwdriver around before settling on the direction they had to head to.

The landscape around them started to change again. The white, formless ground beneath them turned into a gray cobblestone. Green leaves started falling around them, and by the time Günther could properly look around they were walking to a medival castle.

Patrick saw something move in the corner of his eye. Instinctively he pulled out his SMG and unloaded on the creature to the right of them

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" The Doctor slapped the SMG out of Patrick's hand. Patrick would have punched the Doctor's face out if it wasn't for the terrifying voice.

"EXTERMINATE!" Patrick did not have a good look at the creature, but the laser that was fired at them made it clear that it was hostile. In the ensuing chaso could also make out something that vaguely resembled…a plunger?

"1,2 RUN!" The doctor dragged the man and the robot along, while Günther did the same with Patrick. They ran over the drawbridge. The doctor pointed his wand at the draw bridge, and it started to rise. Before the creature could threaten them any longer the wooden doors had completely shut the creature outside.

"It doesn't do wood, but it thankfully does do engines." The doctor turned around with a big smile.

"Ok, what the hell is going on!" The man had his arms crossed

"Ehm, yeah." The group turned around. A man in swimming shorts scratched the back of his head.

"This is going absolutely nowhere, so I'm brining you fellas back. See, this was a writing exercise to get it all running again. And it worked. The bad thing, is that this has gotten way too weird. And now there's fourth wall breaking, it's all messing up beyond my belief. Patrick, Günther, and Taban, you too. I'm sorry. Sorry I got caught up in sadness over my late father. We're back, and we're back for good."

The man smiled " And home we go!" He clapped his hand, and everything ended.

Patrick and Günther lay face down in the sand

"Vhat…vhat happened."

"Good to see you two wakin' up again. You somehow fell asleep at the same time." Dell helped the two of them up.

"Wait…Günther, last time I checked, we were driving in the middle of the desert. This is a beach."

"Did you two just have a brain meltdown or something? We're at the beach for one day to relax before moving on and heading to pick up your parents."

"…but ve…did you also have zat strange dream?"

"About robots? Yeah, I did, doc."

"What kind of robots?" Dell seemed to lose all worry in his voice and seemed to get quite excited.

"Eh…nevermind. Let's just get out of here."

"Not until Ludvig is done with his sandcastle." Dell pointed at Ludvig's sand version of the Cathedral of St. Basil.

Günther and Patrick shared a deep laugh, and they didn't hear the sound of a key pulled across a piano chord in the distance because of it.

FYI, I'm back, for good.

First to my other story, then this one.

Life in Spain is good.

Sorry.


End file.
